Buena Vista, Corozal District– Do Belizeans want to be recolonized by Guatemala on the upcoming Compromis referendum, signed by the Belize government and Guatemala on 8th December, 2008? For a yes, vote for the ICJ. This referendum may decide our future and shall be held on the 10th April, 2019.

Let us remember the recent British referendum that was a homemade referendum to break away from the European Union (BREXIT).  By a majority of votes the British people reaffirmed their self-determination to remain a free nation in Europe and in the world once again.

With the 1997 British withdrawal from Hong Kong, the Spanish government renewed the call for a return of Gibraltar, the 1,396 foot high rock of 27,000 inhabitants, to Spanish rule. Jose Rodriguez Spiteri of the Spanish Foreign Ministry suggested a co-sovereign agreement with the Gibraltarians retaining British ways in an autonomous Spanish state.

Hong Kong was leased for 99 years from China. Since the British had to withdraw, they negotiated a promise from China to let Hong Kong maintain internal autonomy for 50 years in a policy called “one China, two systems”. The Spanish call for a return of Gibraltar is different, since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 awarded Britain sovereignty over Gibraltar in perpetuity.

The Gibraltarians responded with their homemade referendum and rejected Spain’s pretensions by a majority of votes. Again, the people of Gibraltar exercised their right of self-determination.

This dispute was argued before the United Nations (UN) Special Decolonization Committee in 2005 centred around two opposing positions. Spain argued that the governing principle for Gibraltar should be the historic territorial integrity of Spain. Gibraltarians countered that the most fundamental right of people in the decolonization process must be self-determination, not territorial integrity.

The British homemade referendum to pull out of the European Union was drafted solely by the British: it was not by external pressure. The Gibraltarians’ homemade referendum was also drafted by Gibraltarians to reject Spanish pretensions. It was not made by external pressure or advice.

In my view the upcoming Compromis referendum on 10th April 2019 is not a homemade referendum to reject the partition of Belize, but an imposed foreign interest referendum to split Belize land and sea to Guatemala. Let us support and vote simultaneously on 10th April 2019 for our local homemade referendum. The SAVE BELIZE TOGETHER Referendum to prove to the world that Belize is now and forever ours. I make a final call to all institutions and all patriotic citizens to endorse and adopt the following homemade referendum to protect Belize sovereignty and territorial integrity. The following homemade referendum was prepared by Citizen Lucilo Teck for all Belizeans to become a reality.

The following proposal: Save Belize Referendum to be held simultaneously in every village, town and city manned by volunteers on the 10th April 2019.

Our democratic response to the world (UN), our justification to the no vote to the ICJ as an act of self-determination for a free Belize. Support our homemade referendum.

Proposed Homemade Referendum:

Belizean, do you agree to reject the present compromise which is unconstitutional, undemocratic and nullifies our human rights for self-determination signed on December 8th  2008  by the governments  of Belize and Guatemala with the endorsement  by the Opposition in its current form with the central question on Article 2 requesting the International Court of Justice to determine “any and all legal claims  of Guatemala against Belize to land and insular territories and  to any maritime areas pertaining to these territories to declare  the rights therein  of both parties and to determine the boundaries between their respective territories and areas”?

Do you accept that the way forward to settle this unfounded claim is to request the ICJ or the UN Security Council to determine the validity of the 1859 Treaty signed between the republic of Guatemala and Great Britain which awarded Britain sovereignty in perpetuity over British Honduras, now Belize?  Are you against the partition of Belize’s land and sea against the will of Belize’s inhabitants?

YES or NO?

Dated 10th August, 2018