So, while Belize wanted information on Guatemala's intention to hold their ICJ referendum, the Guatemalan delegation was expecting to be similarly updated about Belize's plans for an ICJ referendum here.
Foreign Minister Elrington told us that he explained to the Guatemalan Foreign Minister and her delegation that Belize has Municipal Elections and a re-registration exercise that must be done before the ICJ referendum can take place. He said that Belize is looking at the end of 2018, or the beginning of 2019 as a possible time-frame:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Minister of Foreign Affairs
"She inquired about the time table for our own referendum. I explained to her that we are constitutionally required to have re-registration, next year. And of course, we had given an undertaking to the Opposition that we would do that. And then, we are constitutionally required to have the elections, the municipal elections, and then we have a requirement to do re-registration. So, I told her that we have to get those done before we would be able to go into our referendum, and because of those things, we did not see it possible for us to do so before the last quarter of 2018 and maybe the first quarter of 2019. But, I gave her the assurance that in fact, we were serious about moving ahead with it."
In other news coming out of the Bilateral talks, reference was made to 13 bilateral agreements Belize and Guatemala signed unto in December of 2014. Well, somewhere during the heightened tensions of the fatal shooting of the Guatemalan young man in the Chiquibul, the implementation went dormant.
Both foreign Ministers decided last week that a joint commission on those 13 agreements will be re-established. Ambassador Alexis Rosado will head the commission on Belize side, and a new Guatemalan Ambassador to Belize, who will be installed by the end of next month, will head the commission on their side.
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