But the talk of juggling alliances is in the abstract right now. What's real is that the Guatemalans are moving ahead to a referendum on whether the Belize Guatemala territorial dispute should go to the ICJ.
The congress of Guatemala voted overwhelmingly two days ago that their supreme electoral tribunal, should proceed with calling a referendum. Ambassador Rosado says we should expect that to happen within the year:..
H.E. Alexis Rosado, BZ Ambassador to Guatemala
"The supreme electoral tribunal had said before that they needed anywhere between 90 days and 6 months to be able to put the things together, put in place everything necessary to hold the referendum. So, it's a matter now for them to decide when they will call it. I understand that the current administration has been saying that they wish, that, ahm, it could be held this year. We also know that they have budgeted sufficient funds for them to be able to organize such a public consultation."
"And we should expect that anywhere between now and the end of the year, they should be able to hold one."
"What they do not have, or at least they say they do not have funds sufficiently, is for their public awareness campaign, and that I understand and I think that is what you're referring to. That the European Union is helping. I know that they are now as we speak taking certain measures in order to be able to facilitate them with some ready funds since they don't have much time left for them to conduct their own public consultation. So they need ready funding now. And they have been for some time, knocking on doors with the international community and the group of friends."
And while Guatemala looks for funds for its awareness campaign, Andrews and Rosado say Belize's education campaign has been ongoing since 2012.
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