7 News Belize

Guat Congress Says No To Map Including Belize
posted (April 19, 2017)

3 weeks ago, we told you about the leaked document from the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It's a report from a consultant in which 3 recommendations were being made. Those were to include Belize in the Guatemalan official map; to consider a referendum on offshore oil exploration in Belize, and to map out the Sarstoon area.

Well, press reports out of that country are that the Guatemalan congress rejected approval of a resolution to instruct government entities to include Belize in the official Guatemala map. On yesterday's issue, The Prensa Libre Newspaper reported that Congressman Luis Fernando Montenegro, from the political party, "Together for Guatemala", was the one who made by the proposal, and it was voted down by 84 votes against to 26 votes in favour.

That resolution also sought demand that all government departments use and authorize only maps of Guatemala that includes Belize with a dotted line and with the description "territorial, island, and maritime dispute pending resolution. This dotted line should read "boundary not defined".

Congressman Montenegro, who was pushing for this adversarial position against Belize, tried to convince his Congress colleagues by suggesting that in public and private education centers, a "trimmed down" version of the map of Guatemala was being taught. Another representative, Congressman Mario Taracenca, he understood Montengro's good intention, but that that "Foreign policy of the country is the responsibility of the President of the Republic." End quote.

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