Email

Print

Now since it is his first visit to Belize, we tried to get Secretary General Almagro to weigh in on this ongoing territorial dispute. We say ‘tried’ because right as we were going to drill him on Guatemala’s rejection of Belize’s proposals among several other topics – he was hauled away by his press secretary. All we managed to get out of him is the purpose of his visit and that he supports taking the dispute to the International Court of Justice. Here’s that exchange with Secretary General Almagro. 

H.E. Luis Almagro - Secretary General, OAS
"The official mission was to visit this project, to visit the office and also of course very relevant official meetings with Prime Minister and with Minister of Foreign Affairs. We talk about practicability of this process the judiciary of this process and we have seen your authorities very committed to what is necessary to achieve the steps to move forward this process. So far we need the necessary movements to take this to the International Court of Justice that will be the only place where this can be resolved."

Courtney Weatherburne
"Sir now while this is happening here and the main objective of this programme is to promote peace, there are several issues at the borders. Sir the recent news, Guatemala has rejected Belize's eleven point proposal, can you first of all confirm that it has been rejected?"

H.E. Luis Almagro - Secretary General, OAS
"Look you're now asking a question that I think both side still have to work out, is what I was saying, have to work about building confidence, about building trust. We need to move forward in order to move in the direction of sitting down and a solution that can bring the case to the International Court of Justice and should be the top priority these days. And then to promote just enough measures between both countries to avoid accidents, to avoid any incident, to keep them in the mode of tranquillity and relax and that is the main task we should be having; and everything should be diplomacy around and with that purpose."

And they did arrange another meeting time with Almagro and that is set for tomorrow morning at 9:30 at the VIP ROOM in PHILIP GOLDSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. WE will put our questions to him then.