In recent weeks, there have been concerns raised over reports coming out of Guatemala that their government plans to print a new passport that would depict the territorial differendum with Belize. When we first ran the story, there was doubt over what exactly this means.

Official information that was issued by Guatemala’s governance ministry (Ministerio de Gobernación), which had put out a tender notice, detailed that “the map of Central America and the definition of the outlines of the other countries… must take into account the territorial differendum of Guatemala with Belize and the policy guidelines on the matter as directed by the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Guatemala….”

Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced at his quarterly press conference today that during a bilateral meeting between foreign officials in Haiti, the Guatemalans offered an official assurance that the stories in the media about them wanting to issue modified passports which would depict Belize as a part of Guatemala are not true.

Any new passports will be identical to the current passport, which dates back to 2005/2006, Barrow said.

Barrow made the comments in the context of reporting on the decision by Guatemala to indefinitely and unilaterally postpone the ICJ referendum.

He said that, “we’ve seen some worrying incidents develop, including the production of a video at the OAS, and on another occasion a physical map … which showed Belize as a part of Guatemala’s territory.”

“Also, there have been reports suggesting that the Guatemalans are seeking the procurement of a new batch of passports and that these new Guatemalan passports would, again, show Belize as a part of the national territory of Guatemala,” Barrow added.

The Prime Minister said that he has made it clear to the Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, that Belize is particularly concerned over this series of developments, and he needed to be sure that the UN would understand Belize’s position.

He explained that the Guatemalans employ the services of the UN office of procurement (United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)) for sourcing the new passports that they are about to issue.

Apart from Barrow speaking with Ban Ki-Moon, Foreign Affairs officials in Belize had already spoken with UN personnel in Belize and New York, he added.

Barrow said that he “wanted to ensure that… [the] UN procurement services office would not, in fact, facilitate the obtaining of any passports by Guatemala that would contain a map that purported to show Belize as part of the national territory of Guatemala.”

According to Barrow, the passports with the dotted line began to be issued in 2005/2006. Amandala had previously been told by GOB officials that the dotted line would be something new. However, we have since seen images of the current passport, also showing the dotted line, but very finely drawn.

The new passports follow a model used by the countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA). Belize subscribes to the CARICOM passport—not the SICA model—and there are no indications that Belize assented to the declaration to accept the passport model, which, GOB officials said, is also used by other countries in the region.

Barrow indicated that the change happened under the last GOB administration of the People’s United Party; however, GOB’s inquiries locally suggest that those who were Belizean officials at the time have no recollection of any such meeting and certainly insist that they did not sanction any such SICA map as part of what was agreed would be displayed in the Guatemala passport, Barrow told the press.

We asked Godfrey Smith, SC, who was Foreign Affairs Minister for Belize in 2005-2006, if he knew anything about Belize being separated from Guatemala with a dotted line on the cover of their passport.

Smith said: “Absolutely not!”

His successor, Eamon Courtenay, told us the same when we contacted him today.

Amalia Mai, who was the chief executive officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Amandala that upon hearing the explanation given by the Prime Minister at his press conference today, she called the SICA office to get some clarification. She also told us she has no recollection of the matter ever being discussed at SICA. Mai added that something like that would definitely stick out in anybody’s mind, and any government would reject that.

Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington told Amandala today that it was only recently that the Government of Belize recognized that the Guatemala passports, which had been in use since the last administration, use the dotted line to represent the western border.

As we have previously explained, the dotted line is repudiation by Guatemala of our western border with that country.

Barrow said that the Guatemalans told them: “There is not going to be any change from the current passport.”

He added that, “We, of course, make the point that we are, nevertheless, concerned that the current passport shows a dotted rather than a solid line.”