Four days from now, on Monday Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington will be in Guatemala City to sign the amendment to the Special Agreement between Belize and Guatemala. Now, when the original special agreement was first signed back in 2008, the PUP's Representative Eamon Courtenay was right there. But this time, there won't be any PUP rep there when he signs the amended agreement. That's the position that the Opposition has taken - and they say it's because government didn't consult with them or the public about the change in the agreement.
Now, if you've been following the news, you'll know that the amendment to the agreement is to allow Guatemala to have its own independent referendum on whether the dispute should go to the ICJ. Originally, both countries were supposed to do it on the same date, but when Guatemala said it wanted to go ahead in November as part of its presidential election, the Barrow administration told them, basically, that they're on their own.
And, now, the opposition is telling the government the same thing. A press release issued today says that a public statement on this was to have been issued and cleared with the opposition - but that never happened.
The statement adds that, quote, "no explanation has been provided to the Belizean people for agreeing to such a request…except that the Foreign Minister Hon Sedi Elrington has said that the Guatemalans 'thought that it would be convenient...largely because of cost considerations.'" End quote. And so, the PUP concludes, quote, "the issue is of profound national importance and (it) cannot agree to support any such change to the Special Agreement that was not properly explained and formally consulted."
Today, Senator Lisa Shoman - who has been the Opposition Representative throughout the OAS/Guatemala discussion told us today why she can't take part this time:
Lisa Shoman, Senator
"What is even worse is that it has always been an achievement of ours, in terms of Belize, that we have never allowed the Guatemala issue to become politicize or part of any political campaign. The same is true in terms of our relations with Guatemala. We have never wanted for this question to be involved with any electoral process in Guatemala, because we know the capacity for it to become a political issue and so the timing of having this particular referendum is something that breaks a principle that we've had for a long time, which is neither Belize or Guatemala would have this referendum anytime during a respective political processes and we have said so plainly to all of the international communities for at least the past 15 years."
Daniel Ortiz
"So ma'am, with the representatives of the PUP not attending this meeting, what effect that does that have on the process and what statement does that make generally?"
Lisa Shoman, Senator
"It says that for this particular event we are not in agreement in the way it was carried out and we will not be attending. No doubt the government will tell you that they have the right to act on behalf of Belizeans and if that is their approach - that is their approach. We have always kept, in fact it is the Peoples United Party government that started with having a bi-partisan approach on the issue and we have kept to that very faithfully. But when agreements such as the special agreement are going to be entered into and the afterwards there will be changes, and those changes are neither properly consulted with the opposition, nor with the people of Belize. This is not something that the party felt as a responsible opposition that we could accompany the government in this regard."
Shoman also noted the Opposition Party's discontent with Foreign Minister Elrington for not informing - much less inviting them to attend - the informal meeting that he had with the Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales last week Sunday.
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