The politicians could not come up with a solution, and neither could the technicians, and now the OAS Secretary General is expected to formally announce that basically the facilitation process could not produce a negotiated settlement and Belize and Guatemala best take their claim to the International Court of Justice. The announcement by OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza is expected to be delivered at the end of this week or very early next week. And while it comes as no surprise, where both sides go next is still unclear.
Secretary General Insulza is expected to recommend some sort of international adjudication, and then both countries would have to go to a referendum to agree on the International Court of Justice. That referendum would have to take place in the same day in both countries and the question posed to voters would have to be the same in both countries. With elections coming up in Belize, and having just concluded in Guatemala – best bets are that any referendum would have to wait until next year.
