Dear Editor,

The dispute with Guatemala is old and is not going away anytime soon. For this dispute, our country needs to send some bright young Belizeans abroad to study international law.

I have not heard anything of substance coming from the Belize Bar Association in regards to this matter. Is it because the lawyers in Belize do not care, or they do not possess the credentials to speak on this issue? I more believe it is because of the latter reason.

One would think that our lawyers would want to lend their expertise on such an issue of vital importance to our people and nation.

I now call on all the Belizean people, especially those who live in the United States and abroad, to conduct their own research on this matter and then put it to the public to educate them, because this is the only way Belizeans will be able to understand what has been transpiring with this Guatemalan bogus claim for centuries now.

Getting rid of the Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington will not solve the problem because we do not have too many trained lawyers in the field of international law in our country.

We need to give out scholarships now to send people to study or encourage those who are currently in law schools to specialize in this area and give them a job in the Foreign Ministry to advise future Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

Also, our Foreign Ministry needs to get people who have studied in the fields of history, political science, international relations, international law and diplomacy.

The world has changed and we need to change also. We cannot be giving people these jobs who are our relatives, friends and political cronies who are unqualified for these important positions. Our country’s future is in trouble, and we are playing with fire.

There are Belizeans in the United States who can fill any position where Belize is lacking, and we need to look for those Belizeans and encourage them to come back home.

Wellington C. Ramos