On Monday night, on Darrel and Troy’s show on Love FM, former government minister, historian, Brother Hector Silva, gave a full explanation of the 1859 treaty, and why it is as watertight as a well-made pataki. Mr. Silva explained why Guatemala has no claim over us because of Article Seven of the 1859 treaty. Mr. Silva is absolutely in step with the YES vote when it comes to the 1859 treaty.
The funny thing is that Mr. Silva aims his arrow at the YES proponents, people who are absolute believers, when the philistines in the mix are the NO proponents of the Belize Peace movement, especially Mr. Bradley and Mr. Rogers. They are the ones who insist that Guatemala will roll through us like a panzer through bush, if we are depending on the 1859 treaty to hold up in court.
Interestingly, some people are “unearthing” old documents and presenting them as if they were hidden, dark secrets of Belize. But anybody who has a copy of Ambassador James S. Murphy’s, The Guatemalan Claim to Belize – A Compendium of Relevant Documents, published in 2006, knows these stories and that there isn’t anything to fret about there. Please, if the 1992 joint statement means that Belize suspended the borders, then how come Ramphal and Reichler, in their 2002 proposals, insisted that Belize’s borders remained as was, from the Hondo to the Sarstoon?
I think we should thank everyone for their research and their opinions. But they, the NO side, shouldn’t be presenting questions they have on their minds, as facts.
Mr. Silva, and former government minister, historian, Fred Hunter, Sr., believe 100% in the 1859 parchment, but they are against going to court. I gather that their stance is that no court should be allowed to rule on what has been fixed since 1859.
I’ve read Mr. Hunter’s excellent and entertaining book, The History of the Sovereignty of Belize — every Belizean should read it — and I give Mr. Silva my ear whenever he calls into the various radio and television shows. I believe that these gentlemen sealed the book after 1981, that they haven’t been paying that much attention since. I said, that’s the sense I have.
The United Nations declared for us in 1980, and they asked us to work out something with Guatemala so we can become better neighbors. The independent Belize has been negotiating with Guatemala since the year of her birth, 1981. The Guatemalans, some of them, seem unable to understand. Impossibly, they rejected Ramphal/Reichler 2002. If you read James S. Murphy’s book, you will see when the intransigent, greedy head re-emerged and started insisting, all over again, for land.
If we were the British, we would do as they always did. We are not the British. That is why we are contemplating going to court and having the ICJ explain to Guatemala what that country didn’t understand in 1980.
ICJ & CCJ different from local courts
A private citizen would have to bring more than an ironclad case before a local court in Belize to win a $95 million verdict against the government. That case would not only have to be free from any impurity, it would also have to show that the government had malice, bad mind for the private individual. A local court would have to be very brave to rule against the government in a big case, especially one where the judgment could send the nation to financial ruin.
The ICJ and the CCJ are not local courts. They can look at the bare facts, the cold legal side of a case. All the legal experts say the wind is at our back if we go to the ICJ. Of course we do our own reading. When we do so we see the clear reasoning of the legal experts.
Guatemala, it appears, wanted the ICJ to hear the case as if it were a local court. They wanted the ICJ to look at other than legal factors when ruling on the case. Even if the ICJ were to rule as if it were a local court, it wouldn’t help Guatemala. Information brought forward by Fred Hunter, Sr. and Hector Silva shows that Guatemala couldn’t win. The fact is that there is a lot more to absolve the British in the matter of Article Seven than Hunter and Silva have presented.
Life is full of ironies. The Americans have turned out to be Guatemala’s number one ally. When Guatemala signed the 1859 treaty it was partly because they wanted the British to insulate them from the American-sponsored filibuster, William Walker, and other American-sponsored devils like him. We know, of course, that that is far from the only reason why Guatemala signed in 1859. The Guatemalans never occupied any part of Belizean territory, and their claim to have inherited the territory from Spain doesn’t trump any of our arguments.
That 14 million, what it’s for
At a recent sitting of the House of Representatives, the Minister of Works, Rene Montero, informed the nation that the government needed $14 million more funding for the rehabilitation of the George Price Highway, between Roaring Creek and Santa Elena. The original loan for that project, if I recall correctly, was $52 million, and that would make the new $14 million represent nearly 30% in cost overrun. That is quite an astonishing figure.
The minister explained that the government needed the $14 million to pay for the acquisition of private property, which was needed for the expansion of the road, and for safety features. The Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, declared that private landowners had the government over a barrel, and were squeezing the government far beyond what the government had estimated it would have to pay to acquire these properties.
That’s astonishing stuff. The UDP isn’t a first-time government. Some of these guys have been in government for many years. This is an incredible miscalculation, or an incredible something else, or another something else.
Knowing full well that no civilian can extort money from the government, if the government doesn’t want, isn’t compliant, and knowing that the government must have budgeted for the land acquisition, I have concluded that the 14 million is for the long-hoped-for pathway.
At the House meeting prior to the one where the claim was put in for the $14 million, the Cayo South area rep, Julius Espat, a qualified architect, had declared that he had seen the plan for the project, and it did not include one of the most important safety features, a side path.
Minister Montero did not say the money is needed for the walkway. Maybe the government completely forgot about the walkway, until the Cayo South area rep pointed it out. Since Julius spoke in the House, villagers have told me that personnel from the road builders have told them that we are getting a pathway.
The GoB really should have come clean. Hocus pocus about local extortion is making us think thoughts we really don’t want. The way this government is going, copying every bad thing we complained about in the last PUP government, everyone suspects that graft is afoot, along with miscalculations.
The government should have given Julius the points, instead of saying that the $14 million was for “extorting” private landowners, and for safety features for the wide road to Guatemala.
Anyway, no belaboring, all’s righted now, so I thank the GoB for correcting the oversight. I believe I would be the last person to complain about a walkway. I am absolutely delighted to hear, believe that the walkway/pathway is on the horizon.
Wow, a whopping $14 million for the walkway! In America, shoeshine boy can be president, and in Belize lowly picado and dangerous roadside can be turned into near streets. It is going to be a fabulous thing. And think about the utility! Our children and grandchildren will be a goodly distance from the big trucks and cars as they make their way to and from school each day, or when they go visiting their friends. I don’t go out drinking anymore — I take my tat right at home — but all our borachos will now have a safe path home after a night out. And the ladies will be safe after an evening of pitti-pat at the neighbor.
Good leadership plans ahead. We won’t want any nonsense ideas to rule when we get our pathway from Roaring Creek to Santa Elena. We must allow bicyclists on our new pathway. But they will have to follow some strict rules. If you will ride on the pathway, you must ride like an old man. Absolutely no speeding! Horses will also have license on our spanking new pathway, but you have to ride like gentleman and gentle lady. Absolutely no racetrack business!