Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, says despite the border dispute between Belize and Guatemala is before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) the issue still remains a matter of concern to the hemispheric body.
Almagro, who ended a visit to the country on Monday, urged both countries to continue strengthening their cooperation through confidence-building measures.
“We should all keep working. We should work during the process at the International Court of Justice. We should work when the decision comes and then the work of the administration, the decision of the court will be very relevant too. So the work won’t stop so easily,” he told a news conference.
“Permanently, we need to create better confidence, better [relationships] between the neighboring countries and we have to facilitate conditions in order to have better cooperation in the Adjacency Zone.
“We need to create possibilities for an easy administration for the decision of the court. All that is relevant, so we all need to keep doing what we are doing, and confidence-building measures were relevant ten years ago and are relevant today and will be relevant in twenty years because that is part of being good neighbors to countries,” Almagro told reporters.
In 1859 Britain and Guatemala signed a treaty that defined the borders from the Rio Hondo to Sarstoon. The treaty included an article that said both parties would make their best efforts to build a cart road from Guatemala City to the Atlantic Coast. After a few years, the road hadn’t been built and Guatemala blamed Britain for it. They said the treaty was a treaty of cession and because Britain violated it, they were supposed to get back their land.
In 1946 Guatemala officially tried to declare the treaty null and void. Britain suggested going to the ICJ to resolve their differences, but Guatemala rejected it. After years of failed negotiations, the two countries finally agreed to accept the possibility of going to court. Guatemala held its referendum in April of 2018 and voted yes to go the ICJ. On April 10th, 2019, Belizeans voted to have the matter go before the ICJ.
But notwithstanding the protracted nature of the age-old dispute and the funding that has gone into keeping the OAS office at the Adjacency Zone open, Almagro and Prime Minister Briceño have pledged that the work at the western border will continue to be financed for at least another 18 months, beginning in 2023.
Prime Minister Briceño said while on a trip to Brussels he had been informed by the European Union that they are going to provide funding for another 18 months.
The OAS Secretary General last visited Belize in April 2016.
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