Belize’s move to political independence in September of 1981 was a risky proposition because of the expressed hostility of our neighbor to the west, Guatemala, which is forty times larger than Belize. The settlement of Belize had existed as a territorial unit by the name of British Honduras, a British colony, from 1862, when the British crown’s representative was elevated to a lieutenant governor, subordinate to the governor of Jamaica.
In 1871, the members of the Legislative Assembly in British Honduras gave up their political privileges. They asked for direct British rule in return for the greater security of crown colony status. A new constitution was inaugurated in April 1871 and the new legislature became the Legislative Council. According to Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, the constitutional change of 1871 moved power from the old settler oligarchy of Belize to the boardrooms of British companies and the Colonial Office in London.
The military reality of the settlement of Belize had involved Jamaica from back in the eighteenth century, because Jamaica was the nearest British possession. The British also had a settler presence in Nicaragua, which is still the most British-influenced of the Central American republics, but it was to Jamaica that the so-called Baymen looked for military/naval assistance against slave revolts, Maya insurgencies, and aggression from the Spanish crown itself.
We are giving a broad background outline of the situation here before Belize went on its own in September of 1981. Through Jamaica, the British had been Belize’s “big brother” for centuries. Britain (and the United States) had wished for Belize’s independence to take place on the basis of the Heads of Agreement, which was signed by Government of Belize representatives in March 1981 in London, but then rejected by the people of Belize in street uprisings in April. Belize proceeded to independence in September of 1981 without a “defence guarantee” from the British.
The fact of independence puts us in a different situation from that of the Falkland Islands, which became a British possession in 1833. Independence made Belize a member of the United Nations and gave us defined borders. The nations of Latin America and the Caribbean feel they can support Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands, as they did on Monday of this week in Cancun, since the British own the “Malvinas” because of military might. The Falklands, as far as we are aware, have no right or aspiration to nationhood. The population is all British in descent, unlike Belize’s population, which is a unique polyglot, emerging over centuries, of Mestizo, African, Garifuna, Maya, European, East Indian, Arab, etc.
The nature of the composition of the Falkland Islands’ population, we submit, meant that when Argentina moved militarily against the islands in 1982, the British response was prompt, perhaps even knee jerk. London went to war with Buenos Aires. In 1982, all the centuries of British tradition and military protection in Belize meant that a large part of the population of Belize instinctively supported the Brits and the Falklands against Argentina. But throughout Latin America, by contrast, the mood was massively anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist, and therefore in favor of Argentina. And remember, Belize itself had gone to independence because those same progressive Latin American states, led by Panama, had voted in favor of Belize’s independence, and against the wishes of Guatemala.
As quiet as Mexico has been on the Belize question since the Mariscal-Spencer Treaty in 1893, it appears to us that Mexico is a state which will grow and grow in strategic importance for us as Belizeans, particularly in the light of the territorial claim which the Guatemalans refuse to relinquish. This newspaper understood the importance of last weekend’s Mexico-CARICOM Summit in Cancun, and we would really have wanted to be there. It was not until the weekend itself that we understood the plan for another, different kind of summit on Monday, when all the hemisphere’s anti-colonial and anti-imperialist passions predictably surged. This was the so-called Unity Summit, featuring 32 Latin American and Caribbean nations.
It is, perhaps by definition, impossible for the Government of Belize’s bureaucrats to do an adequate job of reviewing all that happened in Cancun on Sunday and Monday. In all other independent nations of the world, when the head of state travels to a regional or international conference, the nation’s press accompanies that head of state to report back to the people. In the days of Mr. Price’s PUP, the conferences were so controversial and the independent media here so tiny that no one bothered to agitate for reporters to accompany Mr. Price on his travels. Remember, there was only one government monopoly radio station, no television, and until 1967 only one non-government newspaper, The Belize Billboard.
Today, of course, the media is much larger, and greatly robust. An attempt was made about three or four years ago to sort out the confusion in the media which emerged with the proliferation of political and religious media organs. An “independent media” organization was established. Since Lord Michael Ashcroft, a businessman who makes no secret about his political agendas, bought Channel 5 from Stewart Krohn, however, establishing himself as a player in the “independent media,” the organization has ceased to function.
And, so it was that no one from Belize’s independent media was present in Cancun on Sunday and Monday. These two summits were very, very important summits, and they were being held in convenient proximity. The culture in Belize with regard to these conferences has to change. Press credentials must be offered to Belize’s independent media as a matter of course. The independent media needs to re-define itself. Yes, there will be conferences which are so distant that a newspaper like ours will not be able to afford to send a reporter. We understand that. Belize, however, is not the Falkland Islands. We are an independent nation, and need to defend ourselves. In today’s world, information is an important line of defence. Belize’s media should have been in Cancun. Things need to start changing quickly around here. This is Belize, and this is 2010.
Power to the people. Power in the struggle.