We are almost at the end of January 2008, and the illegal settlement of Guatemalans at Santa Rosa on the Belize side of the border has still not been extinguished. In fact, a majority of the 17 families that were there in 2007 still remain. Only 8 of the families were removed on January 4, 2008, according to a press release from the Organization of American States (OAS).
In an appearance on the KREM WUB in October, Foreign Affairs Minister Lisa Shoman gave an undertaking that the settlement would have been gone by the end of 2007, but official information indicates a new target date, no earlier than March 2008, taking us into Belize’s next 5-year administration.
While we were unable to get an update from the Belize Ministry of Foreign Affairs today, we were able to get comment from Miguel Angel Trinidad, the director of the Office of the Secretary General of the OAS at the Belize-Guatemala border.
Trinidad informed us that they hope to complete three more houses in the first week of February, and houses for the remaining 6 families by the first week in March.
The Guatemalans, Trinidad said, are being relocated to Nueva Santa Rosa, Poptun, Guatemala.
“The main problem in the housing construction process is the rain,” he said.