The illegal occupation of 134 Guatemalans at Santa Rosa—on Belizean territory—has been a major point of contention in the OAS-mediated negotiations to settle Guatemala’s unfounded territorial claim on Belize, and for the past three days all attempts by our newspaper to get clarification from both OAS officials in Belize and the Belize Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this highly sensitive and nationally important issue have proved utterly futile.
Last Friday, September 7, the OAS issued a press release, indicating that the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) had given a report to “Friends of Belize and Guatemala.” The release refers to a “progress report” on the relocation of Guatemalans who had settled at Santa Rosa on the Belize side of the border, but it gave no specifics on what that report really entails.
The press release mentioned the purchase of land to which the community is to be resettled, but it did not indicate where exactly these lands are located, who will purchase them and at what cost.
Our newspaper thought that certainly we could turn to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs for clarification, but unfortunately we still have no answers to our questions after three days of trying. When we called that office on Tuesday, we were told that CEO Amalia Mai was out of the country. We were directed to another public officer, who told us that he knew nothing of the release. We called the attention of the person we spoke with to the OAS’s website, where the press release was posted, and indicated that we would call back the following day, Wednesday. When we did, the official told us he was not authorized to speak on the matter, and that we needed to speak with either the CEO or the Minister, neither of whom were in office that day.
He informed us, however, that CEO Mai would return to office Thursday, so we indicated that we would call back and asked him to pass over the OAS press release to her, so she could be aware of the purpose of our call. Each time we called on Thursday, however, we were informed that CEO Mai was in a meeting. We left our contact numbers, indicating that we would be available at the office until late this evening, but at press time our call had still not been returned.
Similarly, we have been unable to get information from the OAS office here in Belize, located at the border. The director of the OAS’s border office, Miguel Angel Trinidad, told us to e-mail him our questions, which we did on Wednesday. This evening we received a call from his office informing us that he would not be able to answer all the questions, and that he is awaiting a response from the OAS headquarters to our queries.
We note that when the Ramphal/Reichler proposals were presented in August of 2002, that report noted that there were 19 Guatemalan families of 134 Guatemalan citizens who had settled on the Belize side of the border at Santa Rosa, established in the late 1990’s. The document proposed that the Guatemalans should be allowed to remain there until they die. There was also a proposal to relocate the villagers who chose to leave Santa Rosa to elsewhere in Belize, where they would be given free land from the Government.
The Santa Rosa issue was a key bone of contention, and Belizean nationalists sternly rejected the proposals to allow illegal settlers these special land rights. Subsequently, the OAS initiated a project to have the villagers resettled in Guatemala.
At press time, we have no official information on how that project has progressed. The recent press release says there is an urgent need for central aspects of this Santa Rosa resettlement project to be concluded ahead of elections in both countries.
Guatemala held elections two days after the press release was published, with final presidential run-off elections due in November. Belize’s elections, not due until March 2008, could be called as early.