In 11 days, on May 25th, Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington travels to Guatemala City where he will sign an amendment to the special agreement between Belize and Guatemala. The agreement was signed in December, 2008 - and it agreed - among other things - that both Guatemala and Belize would have simultaneous referendums on whether we should settle the territorial dispute at the ICJ.
Amandala broke the news on Tuesday morning that article 7.2 would be changed with this amendment - meaning that Guatemala would go ahead with its referendum, in November of this year - while Belize would go sometime after that.
Today, the Prime Minister held a press briefing right after he returned from an official trip to Miami. He said despite the objections of some - he doesn't see how the change hurts Belize; in fact, he thinks it helps:...
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"In terms of the substance of the change, I don't understand how anyone could see that as prejudicial to Belize. The Guatemalans had come asking for a change some time ago, a year and a half ago. I can't quite remember. But at that time they wanted Belize to go first and I said that is not going to happen. Now they come back and they say in terms of their own time table and the elections and so on, they would want to go first. It seems to me that that is very much to Belize's advantage. If they go first and their people say no, we don't even need to hold a referendum. So, if there is any pressure that arises as a consequence of the change, the pressure is on Guatemala."
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