The Santa Rosa community in southwestern Belize has stubbornly remained there for 13 years, an affront to Belizean sovereignty and for many, proof of all that’s wrong with OAS confidence building. But tonight, there is no one in Santa Rosa; the final three Guatemalan families were removed on Tuesday.
That’s according to a release from the OAS which says that the remaining 17 families have been resettled in Guatemala to an area called Finca La Esmeralda in Peten Guatemala – which is 25 miles away from Santa Rosa. Under the OAS resettlement programme, the community has 17 completed homes, with 35 miles of roads, and potable water. All that was paid for by the governments of the UK, the USA, Mexico, Spain and Turkey.
The re-settlement effort started years ago, and the efforts to re-settle the last 17 families comprising 100 or so persons started in the first week of January.
