Email

Print

Since 1988 – Guatemalan nationals have been calling the Belizean village of Santa Rosa near the border in Toledo home. They have lived and farmed in the village as if it was Guatemalan land. What started as 65 persons in 1988 ballooned to 130 people from 16 families in 2007. And so as part of the confidence building measures adopted by Belize and Guatemala through the Organization of American States, the Guatemalans were told they had to go and offered a better place to live in Guatemala.

But that was easier said than done, the Guatemalans were stubborn and the issue of Santa Rosa became a thorn in the side of the Musa administration which promised but never delivered the eviction of all Guatemalan settlers before the end of December 2007. But in the confidence building era and with sensitive border relations, these things have their own glacial pace, and so the last family left at the beginning of April.

So they are gone but will it be for good? That’s what Keith Swift flew to Santa Rosa to find out today.

Keith Swift Reporting,
This is Santa Rosa then – a thriving Guatemalan village on Belizean territory- complete with a school building. The illegal settlers, seen here in a 2007 meeting with the OAS, had made Belize their home – building homes, even a school, and planting crops. All of this on Belizean territory – and it seemed at times that no one was able to stop them.

But that was then and this is the village of Santa Rosa now – or what’s left of it. First here’s the view from the air – and then this is how it looks on the ground. The 16 Guatemalan families are gone. Their dwellings have been reduced to piles of sticks and sheets of zincs – while their tennis shoes, bed frames, and even beer cans are now scattered – and left as memories of the stubborn and divisive settlement that for 20 years just wouldn’t go away. And as for the school – well this is all that’s left of it.

All told it took four months to evict the illegal settlers.

Hon. Carlos Perdomo, Minister of National Security
“It had reached a point where the people living in this village began to raise their flag, they had a school, the remnants is behind me, they started to teach with Guatemalan teachers and Guatemalan curriculum and so it is in that type of situation that it became a ticklish diplomatic issue and they claim that this was their land and so forth.”

Brig. Gen. Lloyd Gillett, CEO – Ministry of National Security
“I know that at times the Belizean public was impatient but I think this is a triumph for diplomacy and also military cooperation. I think both governments realized that the people had to be returned to Guatemala. It was just the manner in which they were returned. I think in the end we ended up with a peaceful transfer of people ton Belizean soil into Guatemala.”

And while getting rid of the illegal Guatemalan settlers was hard - keeping them away might be even harder. That is because Santa Rosa is smack on the Belize/Guatemalan border. In fact right now I am standing on Belizean territory in Santa Rosa but if I take a few steps back, I will be in Guatemalan territory – in the village of El Limon.

And to ensure Guatemalans don’t cross into Belizean territory, armed Belize Defense Force soldiers equipped with global positioning systems now patrol this stretch of the border 24 hours a day. The man leading operations is BDF Captain Daniel Mendez.

Capt. Daniel Mendez, BDF
“The patrol that stays out here rotates on a 24 hour basis which means we have persons out here all the time. Their job is to patrol from the village of San Vicente up to an area called Esperino which is about three kilometres to the north. We also continue patrolling the farms which were used by the villagers of Santa Rosa in order to ensure that no one is returning to use them over again.”

Captain Mendez says that even today - post Santa Rosa - his team regularly encounters Guatemalan nationals trying to cross into Belizean territory.

Capt. Daniel Mendez,
“We still encounter Guatemalans but mostly ex-villagers from Santa Rosa coming back for some things. We have not meeting the number of persons that we used to meet and whenever we do encounter persons, they are informed that they are in Belize and they are told to leave the territory. They are asked to return back to Guatemala.”

Keith Swift,
And they do so willingly?

Capt. Daniel Mendez,
“Yes they do. We haven’t med any resistance.”

And in addition to those 24 hour foot patrols, the BDF will be keeping an eye on the border and on Santa Rosa from atop this hill where an outpost cabin will be built shortly. This morning 7NEWS accompanied National Security Minister Carlos Perdomo and his CEO, Brigadier General Lloyd Gillett, on a tour of Santa Rosa and a visit to the border. Perdomo gave his government’s assurance to ensure that Guatemalans stay on their side of the border.

Hon. Carlos Perdomo,
“The BDF will now be patrolling and ensuring that there are no illegal loggers or illegal farmers or any further migration into this part of Belizean territory.”

Brig. Gen. Lloyd Gillett,
“Even when we have a diplomatic solution to the border dispute there will still be challenges, pressures, people wanting to migrate into Belize, people wanting to farm into Belize, people want to extract forestry products out of Belize. So the BDF has to remain vigilant. We have established a series of permanent observation posts along the border. This is one, we have one in Jalacte, we have another that we recently established in the Rio Blanco area and we will continue to aggressively patrol and also coordinate our patrols with the Guatemalan Armed Forces so that the people living in this area see that we are cooperating and then they understand that they are in Belizean territory and where the border is.”

And one reminder will be armed BDF soldiers – either from atop their observation post – or on foot patrol.

Minister of National Security Carlos Perdomo says he doesn’t expect Belizeans to re-occupy the area because it is part of the Colombia Forest Reserve. In fact plans are afoot to replant trees in the area which was cleared by the Guatemalans. And we should note that the Guatemalans did leave to greener grass on the other side. The OAS provided them with new houses on the Guatemalan side of the border.