7 News Belize

Guatemalan Offensive Maps Made It To Australia
posted (December 27, 2013)
In March of this year, 7News told you about a very offensive map which was being circulated by Guatemala. The way it was drawn suggested that Belize, which is a sovereign nation, as simply a part of Guatemala's land mass. The border between the 2 countries was only denoted by a dotted line, which was shown as being under dispute.

Since Belize's Foreign Minister, Wilfred Elrington, registered an official complaint, all such maps seem to have gone away. Well, Representatives of the Belize Diabetes Association went to Australia to represent the country at a Congress meeting, which is held every 2 years. They found hard copies of the offensive map being circulated at the forum.

Today, 7News spoke with Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer, who is also the Vice President of Belize Diabetes Association, and she told us that Guatemalan representatives at the Congress meeting used that opportunity to spread this propaganda at the Global Village. She said she came upon it by accident:

Sharon Frazer, Senior Magistrate
"We were in Australia representing Belize, representing all the best that Belize has to offer and next door sits Central and South American countries of which Guatemala fall. Low and behold as we normally do as we go to these conferences are that you walk around, you look, you listen and something prompted me actually to go to the Guatemalan booth. They are our neighbors and here is this brochure "Guatemala...we have it all." On the surface it gives you a fact detail and turning the brochure over is where this map of Guatemala is. So, I look at the map and you can imagine, the anger, the offensive feeling I got when in fact that map include not part but all of Belize as a part of Guatemala. There was no line dividing. It was one big drawing with Belize including as "Guatemala...we have it all.""

"Unfortunately at the time I went to the booth there was no one there. There were just brochures there and I am there and I am angry at this time, so I took the brochure and I went back over to the North American booth to find one of my colleagues. The first person I encountered was Anthony Castillo who is the President of the Belize Diabetes Association and I showed him the map and like me he was very upset, very angry and our decision was to try to find the Guatemalan representative there."

"Unfortunately, every time we went there was no one there. I can't tell you what we would have done, what we would have said, but at least we're trying to find out what was their position as far as that map is concerned. But what is hurtful is the fact that we don't know how many of those maps were there and how many were given out."

Frazer told us that she will attempt to engage the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to see if another formal complaint can be lodged. She also feels that Belizeans need to aware that these maps are still in circulation.

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