"The area of the mainland and cayes is 8,867 square miles. The country’s greatest length from north to south is 280 kilometers and its greatest width is 109 kilometers."
This is official information published on the website of the Government of Belize, detailing the size of the country’s territory—Maya Mountains, hills, valleys and coastal plains located on the northeastern corner of Central America, bounded to the north and north-northwest by Mexico, and to the west and south by Guatemala. To the east lies the Caribbean Sea.
Belize’s territory is defined in Schedule 1 of the Constitution, adopted at the time of independence in 1981. In the years preceding, the United Nations (UN) passed a series of six resolutions, beginning in 1975, when Belize stepped up its lobby for international support.
The resolutions could not be any clearer that all nations, including Guatemala, ought to respect the rights of Belizeans to be independent and free, to live in peace and security, and to be assured that the territorial claim of Guatemala would no longer be an impediment to the country’s development and full participation on the international stage.
The final resolution of 1980 underscored that it was the responsibility of the UK to work out a resolution with Guatemala – the problem being the boundary treaty of 1859 which Guatemala had formally renounced four decades earlier.
The 7-point resolution of December 8, 1975, “(1) Reaffirms the inalienable right of the people of Belize to self-determination and independence; (2) Declares that the inviolability and territorial integrity of Belize must be preserved; (3) Calls on all states to respect the right of the people of Belize to self-determination, independence and territorial integrity and to facilitate the attainment by them of their goal of a secure independence…”
These admonitions were repeated in the series of resolutions, and the 1980 resolution went further to call on the UK, as the administering power, “to ensure the security and territorial integrity of Belize.”
Endorsed by a majority of the countries who were UN members at the time, the resolutions urged for Belize’s independence, “in peace and security and with all [Belize’s] territory intact.”
Definition of Belize
1. The territory of Belize comprises the mainland of Belize and all its associated islands and cayes within the area bounded by the frontiers with Guatemala and Mexico and the outer limit of the territorial sea of Belize described as follows:- (a) the frontier with Guatemala is the line prescribed by the Treaty between the United Kingdom and Guatemala signed on 30 April 1859; (b) the frontier with Mexico is the line prescribed by the Treaty between the United Kingdom and Mexico signed on 8 July 1893; (c) the outer limit of the territorial sea of Belize is the limit provided by law measured from such baselines as may have been prescribed before Independence Day by law or otherwise, or as may be so prescribed thereafter, and also includes the Turneffe Islands, the Cayes of Lighthouse Reef and Glover Reef, together with all associated islets and reefs, and their adjacent waters as far as the outer limit of the territorial sea appertaining to them.
2. The area referred to in paragraph 1 of this Schedule includes, but is not limited to, Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Caye Chapel, Long Caye, Frenchman’s Caye, St. George’s Caye, Sergeant’s Caye, Goff’s Caye, English Caye, Rendezvous Caye, Bluefield Range of Cayes, Southern Long Caye, Columbus Caye, Fly Range of Cayes, Tobacco Range of Cayes, Southern
Water Caye, Carrie Bow Caye, Gladden Caye, Silk Cayes, Pompion Caye, Ranguana Range of Cayes, Sapodilla Range of Cayes, Snake Cayes, all islands and cayes associated with the above-mentioned cayes, and all other cayes lying within and along the Barrier Reef.
(Extracted from Chapter 4 of the Laws of Belize: The Constitution)
The territory now known as Belize had been under British rule, stemming from the first contact in the 1600’s. However, long before the British began exploiting this area for trade in mahogany and logwood (dyewood – palo de tinta), the Maya, being indigenous to the region, had built and maintained thriving communities – the evidence today being seen in archaeological remains, the most visible being the ruins of Altun Ha, Xunantinich, Cerros, Caracol, and the like, but more visibly through the presence of the Maya and their descendants across Belize.
Africans forcibly brought to the Americas as a part of the slave trade, made up the vast majority of people numbered in British censuses from the 1700’s to the early 1800’s, for the settlement that later grew to become Belize. (The Maya were not counted in these population surveys.)
Guatemala acknowledges treaties of 1783 and 1786 as contracts that defined the concession areas agreed between Spain and Britain—areas that legally came under the domain of the British flag on those specific dates. Under those treaties, the British were allowed to exploit the forestry resources in the area. That class of trade formed the bedrock of the economy in the settlement during those early years.
The 1783 treaty, granted the British permission to cut and export logwood between the Rio Hondo and the Belize River. The subsequent treaty expanded their operations to the Sibun River.
However, by the 1820’s, the British had expanded operations outside the concession areas, and it is recorded that in 1823, the then Superintendent, Major General Edward Codd, granted the 500 Garinagu (Black Caribs) permission to settle several southern communities in Stann Creek and Toledo, expanding the presence of the Garinagu beyond the Yabra area of Belize City.
Historians say that at the time, the number of slaves were almost 2,500 (or 60%) of a total population counted in the Richard Hadel census as 4,107.
A map shown on page 38 of the Legal Opinion on Guatemala’s Territorial Claim to Belize, Jan. 2002, by Sir Elihu Lauterpacht et. al, shades in blue the remaining portions of Belize, “held by force of arms since 1798” – the year of the Battle of St. George’s Caye.
Even though some in Belize claim this battle was a myth, there are other staunch believers who declare that were it not for this historic battle, the Belize we know today would not exist. Those occupying the territory at the time had two choices – stay and fight the Spaniards, or flee what they had come to know as their homeland. They decided to stay and defend themselves, despite the might and sophistication of the Spaniards. It is recorded in the annals of history that the battle of 1798 not only happened, but that the settlers of the Bay – the Baymen – claimed an unlikely victory.
Paragraph 102 of the Lauterpacht legal opinion points to the aforementioned map (page 38 of the book): “A particularly cogent item of evidence…enclosed with a letter of 29 April 1826 from Mr. Cooke to Mr. Secretary Canning headed ‘Sketch of that part of Yucatan at present possessed by the British.’” The map was used by the official, way back in 1826, to argue that the entire region up to the Sarstoon was in British possession after the 1798 war against the Spaniards.
Fast-forward to 1859, and Britain and Guatemala entered into an agreement which defined the territory of Belize – which they both agreed had been established prior to 1850 – and under which they undertook to harmonize relations and jointly undertake to build a road to the Atlantic coast from Guatemala City.
Article 1 of the 1859 treaty set out the boundaries of the British Settlement in the Bay of Honduras (now Belize), with respect to Guatemala. A paper by the Office of the Geographer, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, US Department of State, titled International Boundary Study. No. 8 – July 21, 1961, (Belize (British Honduras) – Guatemala Boundary) says that, “Spain appears to have ceased its exercise of sovereignty in Central American by approximately 1816…”
It points to the treaty of April 30, 1859, between Britain and Guatemala in which they, “agreed…that the boundary…as they existed previous to and on the 1st day of January 1850, and have continued to exist up to present time, was and is as follows: Beginning at the mouth of the river Sarstoon…and proceeding up the mid-channel thereof to Gracias a Dios Falls; then turning to the right and continuing by a line drawn direct from Gracias a Dios Falls to Garbutt’s Falls on the Belize River, and from Garbutt’s Falls due north until it strikes the Mexican frontier…”
As we have pointed in the November 28, 2008, issue of ICJ Stats, international law dictates that once a boundary is defined in a treaty – in this case one that was ratified by both parties – that boundary is deemed permanent, and recognized in international law. This is notwithstanding Guatemala’s assertions that the treaty is no longer valid – a position it took after its protests that Britain had not fulfilled its obligations under Article 7. Two subsequent attempts at demarcation, cements that fact.
The Office of the Geographer paper notes that after a joint commission was set up to demarcate the border in 1861 – two years after the signing of the treaty – a difference of opinion arose between the parties about the interpretation of Article 7. And in 1863 – a year after the British named the colony British Honduras – a new treaty was drawn up to settle the conflict, involving a payment by Britain of 50,000 pounds towards the road promised under the disputed article. But that treaty was never sealed, and the parties had, despite attempts to settle their differences, remained at loggerheads over the 1859 treaty. At the time, however, two “terminal markers” were set down at Gracias a Dios Falls and Garbutt’s Falls, and 29 pyramids were laid on the ground to mark out the 85-mile distance between these points.
According to the US State Department paper, the boundary along the Sarstoon is 25 miles; between Gracias a Dios and Garbutt’s Falls – 85 miles; and from Garbutt’s Falls to the tri-point with the Mexican border – another 55 miles.
The dispute over Article 7 still not being resolved, the parties again ventured in 1929 to mark out the border, and reestablished the two terminal markers at Gracias a Dios Falls and Garbutt’s Falls.
Thirty-four years after the boundary treaty with Guatemala, Britain entered into a separate boundary treaty with Mexico. This forms the second point of reference to the definition of Belize’s territory in the Constitution (Schedule 1).
A subsequent paper by the Office of the Geographer (International Boundary Study, No. 161 – February 9, 1977 – Belize-Mexico Boundary) says that the boundary between the two countries is 155 miles long.
“On July 8, 1893, the United Kingdom and Mexico signed a treaty which affords the present delimitation of the Belize-Mexico boundary.”
It later cites Article 3 of the treaty as follows: “Her Britannic Majesty guarantees to Mexican merchant vessels in perpetuity the absolute liberty, as at present enjoyed, of navigating the Strait opening to the south of Ambergris Cay [stet], otherwise known as the island of San Pedro, between this cay and the mainland, as well as of navigating the territorial waters of British Honduras.”
The boundaries agreed were set out in Article 1: “Beginning at Boca Bacalar Chico, the strait which separates the State of Yucatan from Ambergris Cay and its dependent isles, the boundary line runs in the center of the channel between the above-mentioned cay and the mainland, southwestward… and then northwest midway between two cays…then turning to the westward, continues across the adjoining bay first westward…then north…again westward….and northward along that meridian…in which is situated the mouth of the River Hondo [Rio Hondo], which it follows in its deepest channel, passing west of Albion Island, continuing up Blue Creek, until the said creek crosses the meridian of Garbutt’s Falls at a point due north of the point where the boundary line of Mexico, Guatemala and British Honduras [Belize] intersect; and from that point it runs due south…”
These treaties were necessary between the UK (Britain) and the neighboring states after their independence, as claims to the territory had to be resolved by a formal contract – which should have been a sort of goodwill gesture between neighbors to enhance peaceful and friendly relations. Several reports have said that were Guatemala to succeed in acquiring any part of Belize, that Mexico would, too, argue its case for a part of Belize’s territory.
Honduras has also staked a claim to a portion of Belize’s territory – in its case the Sapodilla Cayes, which had been enshrined in its constitution as part of its national territory in 1982. In a paper titled, The Sapodilla Cayes: Geopolitical Asterisk in the Bay of Honduras by Tim Hudson, of the Department of Geography, University of Southern Mississippi, and J. Millard Burr, Special Assistant to the Geographer in the US Department of State, it is noted that the proposal, under the Heads of Agreement of 1981, to allow Guatemala “use and enjoyment” of these cayes, led to the resurrection of the Honduran claim.
“Modern Honduran ‘irredentists’ contend that the Sapodillas [Zapotillos] are part of the Bay Island ‘archipelago,’” the authors say, noting, however, that the language of the 1859 treaty with Guatemala “implied that Guatemala considered the Sapodilla Cays, although not mentioned by name, as part and parcel of the ‘British Honduras.’”
During the negotiations led by the Organization of American States (OAS) between Belize and Guatemala, leading up to the Ramphal/Reichler proposals of 2002, Honduras was an integral part of the talks regarding the proposed delimitation of Belize’s southern maritime territory.
The resolution proposed by the OAS team was to allow Guatemala an access corridor to the Caribbean Sea, and to establish a tri-national ecological park, the Belize-Guatemala-Honduras Ecological Park, under which the Sapodilla Cayes would fall.
The CIA Factbook on international disputes says that Honduras claims the Belizean-administered Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize in its constitution, but agreed to a joint ecological park around the cays should Guatemala consent to a maritime corridor in the Caribbean under the OAS-sponsored 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum.
As stated in the November 7, 2008 installment of this column, a third state might want to intervene in the dispute before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), because it might claim that it has an interest and may be affected by the decision of the ICJ. In effect, Honduras may suggest that its territorial rights might be affected in a case between Belize and Guatemala.
Despite the UN resolutions that called on all states to respect the right of Belizeans to be an independent nation, with all its territory intact, the Government of Guatemala in 1999 sent then Prime Minister Said Musa a note calling on him to return all that territory from the Sibun to the Sarstoon, plus all the cayes except St. George’s Caye.
We’ve given you an extensive account of the Guatemala position in the December 5, 2008, installment if ICJ Stats, published in the Wednesday, December 10th edition of the Amandala. We have since noted that while Guatemala has officially staked its claim to 12,700 square kilometers of Belize, Belizean officials now say that Guatemala had at the same time indicated that it reserves the right to revise its claim to the northern parts of Belize.
In 1940, Guatemala claimed that the 1859 treaty, specified in the Belize Constitution, was null and void. And in 1945, the country’s new constitution claimed Belize as part of its territory. Guatemala’s new constitution has a specific article on Belize – Article 19 – still pointing to “rights” it purports to have with respect to Belize, even though amendments in 1985 remove explicit assertions that Belize is within the domain of Guatemalan territory.
Sources: The Belize Constitution of 1980, as updated to September 1990; The Guatemala Constitution of 1985 with 1993 reforms; CIA Factbook on International Disputes (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2070.html); Ramphal/Reichler Proposals for the OAS (http://www.belize-guatemala.gov.bz/press_releases/proposals/proposal_facilitator.html); The Government of Belize’s Belize-Guatemala website (http://www.belize-guatemala.gov.bz/); Education in Belize: A Historical Perspective by J. Alexander Bennett. Angelus Press. 2008; Colonialism and Resistance in Belize: Essays in Historical Sociology by O. Nigel Bolland, Cubola/ UWI Press. 2003; Legal Opinion on Guatemala’s Territorial Claim to Belize, by Sir Elihu Lauterpacht et. al. Jan. 2002; The Sapodilla Cayes: Geopolitical Asterisk in the Bay of Honduras by Tim Hudson, of the Department of Geography, University of Southern Mississippi, and J. Millard Burr, Special Assistant to the Geographer in the US Department of State; International Boundary Study, No. 161 – February 9, 1977 – Belize-Mexico Boundary, the Office of the Geographer, US Department of State; International Boundary Study, No. 161 – February 9, 1977 – Belize-Mexico Boundary, the Office of the Geographer, US Department of State.