Wed. July 29, 2015 (updated Mon. Aug. 3, 2015)–If the Belizean people and the Guatemalan people are genuinely friendly and committed to peace, as espoused by the Guatemalan Foreign Minister, and agreed on fully by the Belize Foreign Minister last night, then we should do all in our power to preserve this friendship.

But there is a big problem that could affect the growth and strengthening of that friendship. The stumbling block has been, and still is, the “unfounded Guatemalan claim of Belizean territory.”

If Guatemala sincerely feels so aggrieved about the wrong it perceives was done to them by the British in not fulfilling one of the articles in the 1859 border treaty, then she will certainly be even more bitter and aggrieved if we should both go to the ICJ, and the ICJ should rule fully in favor of Belize, keeping our full sovereignty and territorial integrity, with not one square centimeter being lost to Guatemala, except, as in the Maritime Areas Act, that she is allowed free passage through our southern waters to access the high seas. Therefore, going to the ICJ would have only increased her pain and disappointment. And that would not improve the relationship between ourselves and our friendly neighbor. Indeed, as in the case of the USA and Nicaragua, if the progress of the case should begin to look dire for Guatemala, who is to say they would not be tempted, like the USA, one of their longtime backers in this claim, to withdraw from the ICJ before the verdict is handed down? Do we recall a present area representative and minister of state withdrawing his libel case when all things pointed to an embarrassing verdict for him?

But if we should go to the ICJ, and, God forbid, the Court decides to appease Guatemala with a small slice of our southern territory, say a part of Toledo and adjacent waters, it would be a dagger in the heart of every Belizean, whose pain would lead to extreme reactions in some quarters. Indeed, it would engender increasing fear of further dismemberment of the Jewel, which would never be the same again. Disappointment would not be the word to describe the pain and anger that would well up in the heart of every Belizean, who has cherished our independent nation since 1981, from the Hondo to the Sarstoon, from Benque to Halfmoon Caye. Our friendly neighbor, Guatemala, would not want us, their friends, to suffer such unbearable pain and eternal indignity. We would even have to change our National Anthem, “from proud Rio Hondo to old Sarstoon.” The public reaction could make the 1919 Ex-servicemen Riot and the 1981 Heads of Agreement Uprising pale in comparison. The Jewel might explode.

So, two good friends; going to the ICJ cannot increase our friendship. It will only put a bigger wedge between us, and a dagger in one of our hearts, and make us forever more unable to become true and lasting friends. Rather, the ICJ decision may in fact make us eternal enemies, while we are just now trying to nurture the possibility of real friendship, with a new generation growing up.

Who caused this? Divide and conquer? Who is responsible for this situation? The answer is obvious. Colonial Spain and colonial Great Britain.

This is a new age, a time of “Reparation.” If independent Belize is now being held responsible for the solution to the age-old “Anglo-Guatemalan dispute,” let this be the way Great Britain will make its “Reparation” to Belize for the centuries of exploitation of its resources, and the centuries of dehumanizing exploitation of our ancestors through slavery and cruel indentured labor. Let “Reparation” be the way Great Britain will compensate Belize for the wrongs of the past, by finding a settlement with Spain and Guatemala.

As the “Father” of our nation has declared to the world, Belize’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is “not for negotiation.” If the colonial European powers, including “Friends of Belize,” and more importantly, Great Britain and Spain, are sincere about “Reparation,” then settle your age-old problem between yourselves; and we will be thankful to you, and forgive all the wrongs you have done to our fore-parents.

Give Guatemala something to make her happy; but leave Belize out of it.

And the Guatemalan people and the Belizean people will live happily as good neighbors and friends forever after.