Belize's facilitator in the Belize/Guatemala facilitation process, Sir. Shridath Ramphal arrived in the country yesterday. Ramphal will be in town until Sunday, conducting a host of meetings, with leaders of government, the opposition, and civil society. He's updating them on developments in the negotiations as well, and consulting on the proposals for the resolution of the territorial differendum, which are expected to be finalized by month's end. This afternoon, Ramphal met with members of the Maya Leaders Alliance who represent a large percentage of those persons who will directly and most significantly be affected by whatever resolution is arrived at. Spokesperson for the alliance, Gregorio Choc today told us that his people's stance on the claim is one which echoes that familiar refrain, "no land cession:
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Gregorio Choc
Well, from the perspective of our communities, they want to be sure that the resources, the land and resources on which they depend on, is not given consideration any at all as a solution to the on-going dispute. That is one of the main issues that they feel strongly about and we felt that it was important to inform the facilitator that it is important for him to consider that the Mayan communities will not support anything that has to do with the issue of land. The Maya peoples along the Belize-Guatemala border, Belize border, will be mostly impacted by any decision, any resolutions, any proposals proposed for that area. Hence, we felt obliged to meet with the facilitator to present our position with respect to what we consider might be in the interest of the Mayan communities in the South.
Late this evening Ramphal had a meeting with members of the Belize Advisory Council.