The Foreign Minister of Belize, Hon. Wilfred Elrington, has refused to retract statements he made in Washington, D.C., to the effect that the border between Belize and Guatemala is “artificial,” and that the people of Belize and Guatemala are the same and have the same aspirations. More than that, the UDP Cabinet of Belize met in Belmopan on Tuesday, December 29, 2009, and, quite pointedly, had nothing to say about Mr. Elrington’s statements.
Early last week, the host of the Wake Up Belize (WUB) morning show simulcast on KREM Radio and KREM TV, and also carried nationwide by Channel 7, Mose Hyde, called for Mr. Elrington to resign from Cabinet or, failing that, for him to be removed. It was Mose Hyde’s opinion, as well as that expressed on KREM Radio by Senator Godwin Hulse, that Minister Elrington’s statements had prejudiced Belize’s position in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and that these statements did not represent the position of the majority of the Belizean people.
The nation state of Guatemala has it written in their constitution that Belize belongs to Guatemala, and constitutes Guatemala’s 23rd Department. Guatemala claims that they inherited rights to the territory of Belize from the original, papally-blessed conqueror of the Central American mainland, Spain, when Guatemala became independent in 1821. Guatemala claims that Great Britain violated the terms of a treaty signed between Britain and Guatemala in 1859 which demarcated the border between Guatemala and British Honduras.
The position of the people of Belize is that we became the independent nation state of Belize on September 21, 1981, with all our territory and borders intact, and that we unconditionally reject the Guatemalan claim to Belize.
The position of the governments of Great Britain and the United States of America is now that Belize should settle its “dispute” with Guatemala in the International Court of Justice, whose ruling would be binding on both Guatemala and Belize. Mr. Elrington and the UDP Government of Belize have supported and initiated the move to submit the “dispute” to the ICJ for binding arbitration. The concept is yet to be presented to the Belizean people for their ratification.
The House Opposition of the People’s United Party (PUP), led by Hon. John Briceño, have yet to make a formal party statement on the ICJ proposition, but the PUP’s previous Leader, former Prime Minister, and area representative of the Fort George constituency, Rt. Hon. Said Musa, has publicly supported the ICJ initiative. (PUP Deputy Leader and Albert constituency area representative, Hon. Mark Espat, has gone on record as rejecting the ICJ arbitration proposition.)
Where Mr. Elrington’s controversial statements three weeks ago in Washington are concerned, the PUP Opposition have surely not come out as unequivocally and forcefully in condemnation as Mose Hyde and Senator Hulse have done. The suggestion is, as we write on Sunday morning, January 3, 2010, that the ruling UDP and the Opposition PUP are less militant on the Guatemala matter than the masses of the Belizean people. Such a reality was first presented to the Belizean people in 1991 when both the then ruling PUP and the then Opposition UDP leadership supported the Maritime Areas Act (MAA). Under pressure from the people of Belize and Philip Goldson’s National Alliance for Belizean Rights (NABR), a new party formed specifically to fight the MAA, the UDP leadership withdrew its support for the MAA. But, the precedent had been set.
It has been a pattern in relatively poor countries which have important, valuable natural resources, for huge and powerful corporations from the wealthy, industrialized nations to seek the rights to exploit and extract these natural resources at the lowest possible prices. In order to obtain “favorable” contractual arrangements, the rich corporations, supported by their countries of origin and sometimes regional military/industrial organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Organization of American States (OAS), have often overthrown democratically elected governments in poor countries to install and support brutal military dictatorships, and have preferred to bribe corrupt leaders rather than negotiate fair deals. In Central and South America, the most outrageous examples of this Wall Street attitude have been Guatemala in 1954 and Chile in 1973.
The Maritime Areas Act of 1991 established for all Belizeans who wished to see that there was a disconnect between our elected leaders and us, the Belizean people, where the Guatemalan issue was concerned. Whether our elected leaders were and are influenced by timidity or by mammon, or by both, it is not for us to say. What we can and do say today is that we do not believe that the majority of the people of Belize share the opinions Minister Elrington expressed last month in Washington. But the elected leaders of Belize will have a simple answer to such an opinion as ours, and it was perhaps best expressed by Jack Palance in Shane: “Prove it.” They are duly elected, you see, and we are not.
Even though they have expressed righteous and nationalistic opinions, it is therefore Mose Hyde and Senator Godwin Hulse who are out on a limb. Mose Hyde holds no constitutional position, and Senator Hulse was elected/appointed to the Senate by probably one of Belize’s two least anti-Guatemala constituencies – the business community. As Belize’s leading newspaper, we join Mose Hyde and Godwin Hulse on that limb, but it is they who have taken the lead on behalf of the people of Belize, and they will have to live up to their responsibility. Talk, you know, is cheap.
There is a thing the Germans call realpolitik. Loosely translated, it means “the reality of power.” In 1940, Adolf Hitler’s Germany invaded France and installed a regime, headed by Marshal Henri–Philippe Petain, known historically as “Vichy France.” It was a regime of traitors to France. The French people then proceeded once again to prove their right to nationhood by establishing and sustaining a Resistance, led by Charles de Gaulle.
We have said to you before in these pages that 1798 and 1981 do not prove Belizeans’ right to nationhood. 1798 and 1981 constitute necessary foundations for our nationhood, but real nationhood is a challenge which lies before us. There is too much of a Vichy Belize smell around us today. Belizeans must resist satellite status. We must prove our right to nationhood.
Power to the people. Power in the struggle.