7 News Belize

Rebuilding The Referendum Effort
posted (March 20, 2014)
In April of last year, the Guatemalans made it official on their Government website, that there wouldn't be the planned Referendum on whether or not their claim to Belize would be taken to the ICJ. Since then, the Belize Foreign Ministry has been trying to rebuild a relationship with that country, in hopes that both sides can reach critical mass to get to a bi-national referendum going sometime in the not too distant future.

As we told you, 2 months ago, Foreign Ministers Wilfred Elrington and Fernando Carrera signed a new diplomatic initiative in Washington DC in the presence of OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. That initiative is called the Road Map and Plan of Action.

Today, the Belize Referendum Unit and Foreign Affairs CEO Alexis Rosado held a sit-down with the media to give an update on the referendum front. It was an hour-long conversation, but here's a short excerpt where Rosado explained what the new initiative seeks to do in the short term:

Ambassador Alexis Rosado, CEO - Ministry of Foreign Affairs
"What do we do? Should we just stop talk to each other? The truth of the matter is that we are members of organizations, regional and international organizations where we have to cooperate, but not just because of that, we are also neighbors and neighbors live side by side. We have to engage with each other; we could fight ot we could collaborate."

"Over the years the subject of the claim has tended to kind of absorb all the energies that we have in our bilateral relations, so that when it comes to collaborative efforts those have basically gone by the wayside because we have been concentrating on finding a solution to this claim which has eluded us. This time the minister decided to take a slightly different approach. It's not that we will no longer be looking at finding a definitive solution to the problem, but in the meantime until such time as we arrive at a solution why don't we concentrate our efforts in building bridges, in finding means of cooperation in areas that are practical and that will bring tangible benefits to our societies."

"Earlier in the meeting with the referendum commission we were talking about the irony of the whole thing that you have this territorial claim, you have this dispute and you will expect that the militaries are not talking to each other, but quite the opposite is true when it comes to Belize and Guatemala. Since the early 2000s the militaries are the only ones who have meeting regularly - having engagements and collaborating with each other."

Rosado explained also that apart from the regular meetings between the Belize and Guatemalan armed forces, both countries are look for different areas to build a better relationship where mutual interests are looked after.

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