Yesterday, the Secretary General of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza issued his recommendation on the Belize-Guatemala territorial dispute. As expected, he advised both countries to take the case to the International Court of Justice to reach a final settlement of the territorial claim.
Today, Prime Minister Said Musa issued a statement saying that the decision on whether or not to take it to the ICJ will be made by the Belizean public in a referendum - but only after the next general election. And, according to government's plan, any referendum would only proceed after an extensive series of national consultations which, again, would only start to be held after the election which tells us that a referendum is at least a year away - and possibly longer than that. Government expects that the Opposition would participate in that consultation. Opposition Leader Dean Barrow was unavailable for comment.
And if you're wondering about the confidence building measures and the adjacency zone they engender, well the OAS has recommended that both nations re-commit to them and speaking with the Prime Minister via telephone today, he said his government would be willing to do to.
Before he departed for a Commonwealth Summit in Uganda, the Prime Minister also said that he is confident that Belize has an ironclad case to maintain its sovereignty and territorial integrity. And the Prime Minister also expressed confidence that Guatemala's new President Alvaro Colom - who is seen as a moderate - is of the view that the matter needs to be settled.
