More Guatemalan encroachment at Benque border
We’ve been through this many times at a number of different sites along the frontier … and no matter how many surveyors are employed or G.P.S. devices donated, our Guatemalan friends just can’t seem to figure out the precise location of the border. This week they’re at it again and News Five’s Janelle Chanona headed west to investigate.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Activity at the Belize’s western border with Guatemala is in high gear as construction on a new state of the art OIRSA quarantine facility nears completion. The joint project is being funded by Guatemala and built on Belizean soil. But, tonight there are concerns that something else is also being built on Belizean land.
Herman Morris, General Manager, Border Management Authority
“To my understanding from credible sources that yes, a portion of their parking lot for their new administration is on Belizean territory.”
According to Herman Morris, General Manager of the Border Management Authority in Benque Viejo, the Guatemalan government is upgrading its facilities in Melchor de Mencos but indications are that the new development may have crossed the line.
Herman Morris, General Manager, Border Management Authority
“The Pan American Institute of Geography and History came to the border and did an exercise and that was define the boundary lines. I have not been privy to the result, the findings, the offices of the O.A.S. do have the results. Based on my understanding from other sources, the line falls far beyond the current structure as well as part of the new administration building for Guatemala.”
“I think its merely an issue of ignorance on the part of Guatemala, that they are certain as to where the boundary line falls and what they are doing.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
“After being here so long, you think the Guatemalans don’t know where the border is?”
Herman Morris
“Where the A.Z. falls, the imaginary line, the adjacency zone which is an imaginary line, where it actually falls.”
And that ignorance also appears to include Guatemalan money changers and bar owners working at the border.
Herman Morris
“They refer to this area as a no man land but there is no such thing as no man’s land in my view, and that portion of the Champon, in my view is on Belizean soil.”
According to Morris, Belize’s Border Management Authority has recently signed a multi-million dollar contract with a local builder to construct three buildings and a fence on their property…structures that would change the flow of traffic between Belize and Guatemala.
Herman Morris
“Access to the Champon area from this side will be a no-no, they will have to go through immigration in Guatemala and then into the Champon area so it will not be a lucrative business for the people from Champon.”
Janelle Chanona
“Is it Belizean owners that run bars in Champon?”
Herman Morris
“No, Champones are all Guatemalans.”
Janelle Chanona
“So how are Guatemalans working on Belizean land?”
Herman Morris
”That’s another thing we raise with Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Not all the Champones are in Belize, only a portion of one of the Champones. There are three, of the three, a portion of one, the one on the east is again, to my understanding in Belize soil.”
Amalia Mai, CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“We have asked the O.A.S. for a reading, they have not come back to us and as such, until we have that report from them we can something formally to them.”
According to Amalia Mai, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of Belize is aware of the situation regarding the Guatemalan Immigration building’s possible encroachment but is waiting for an official finding from the Organization of American States.
Amalia Mai, CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“We can’t very well ask them to stall because we have been working along with them in good faith and good will. If that happens we will have to seriously, if they are indeed building within our territory, it’s something we will have to address and then will know what to do at that point. But until we have that from the O.A.S. we haven’t been able to take action in that respect.”
But both governments are taking action to oversee the phased relocation of a hundred Guatemalan families who were found to be living in Belize, in an area called Santa Rosa in the Toledo district. That process should be completed by the end of the year but Mai believes that a meeting scheduled for later this month in Washington, D.C. will result in a recommendation that the Guatemalan claim be settled in court.
Amalia Mai, Chief Executive Officer
“I think you know that as we await the report from the Secretary General we will have one great satisfaction that we have tried everything that we possibly can as a Government and as a people to find a definitive solution to this. We do have good relations with Guatemala, the Government there, especially the Prime Minster has been very gracious and has always been working with us in good faith to get some resolution. I think yes, we have learnt a lot from this experience and the relations remain very good with Guatemala.”
And to be sure Belize will be counting on strong diplomatic relations with Guatemala and the rest of the international community as the country prepares to enter what will be a yet another—and perhaps final—chapter in the long running saga of ending the territorial claim to our land. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
The Belize-Guatemala meeting at the O.A.S. in Washington is scheduled for October twenty-second to the twenty-fourth.
