Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Guats have not backed out yet

Alexis Rosado

The government is writing to Jose Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, formally rejecting two proposals by Guatemala.  Firstly, Guatemala proposed that Belize amend the Referendum Act and secondly, that Belize hold the referendum on October sixth and if there is a Yes vote, then they would follow suit. Neither issue is envisioned in the Special Agreement signed by the parties in December 2008. So are the proposals a Guatemalan strategy to back out of the process? The C.E.O. in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alexis Rosado, says not so.

Alexis Rosado, C.E.O., Ministry of Foreign Affairs

“Guatemala has not withdrawn from their obligations under the agreements nor have they said we will no longer do this nor have they denounced anything. What they have done simply is to propose to us, for our consideration, possible changes of dates. So let’s not get to the point where we are assuming that they have thrown everything away.”

William Neal

“But the public statements made have been kind of inflammatory for Belizeans to say that you know we should change our referendum act and moving the referendum at least a year down the road. For a lot of people that seems that if the President is saying that.”

Alexis Rosado

“I just want to clarify that up to now, so far, they have not withdrawn from their commitments. They clearly have indicated their interests in making sure that we move off from the sixth of October timeline but they have not formally withdrawn from that. They have told us that they have serious concerns and they are considering ways of shifting that date but as far we are concerned that remains. Now the fact that we as a government have said that we are not in a position to accept their proposals; now it’s left for them to decide what to do. But any change will have to be done jointly; it cannot be done unilaterally.”

In related news, there was a report in today’s Prensa Libre, the mouth piece of the Guatemalan Government that President, Otto Perez Molina, has endorsed a request by Vice-President, Roxana Baldetti, to change the subject of a seminar from the territorial dispute to food security and literacy meaning that the dispute may now be on the back burner for Guatemalans.