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Belize became independent on the 21st September 1981 from
Great Britain in the face of a claim to its territory by
the neighbouring Republic of Guatemala.
Guatemala
contends that it inherited Belizean territory from Spain
based on the doctrine of uti possidetis. Belize regards
this Claim as specious and unfounded.
Belize
has always sought to settle the Guatemalan Claim through
negotiations. The latest round of negotiations was launched
in July 2000 in Washington DC when Belize and Guatemala
agreed to appoint Facilitators, with the Secretary General
of the Organization of American States acting as a witness
of honour, “whose role would be to move the process
of negotiations toward a final resolution of the territorial
differendum.”
The
Facilitators directed Belize and Guatemala to deliver written
statements of their claims according to the following schedule,
with which the parties duly complied:
| Guatemala |
31st
March 2001 |
| Belize |
30th
April 2001 |
| Guatemala
|
[Reply]
15th May 2001. |
On the
21st and 22nd May 2001, representatives of Guatemala and
Belize appeared before the Facilitators and the witness
of honour and made oral presentations in support of their
respective positions.
Belize
has defended its right to exist as an independent nation
based on the exercise of its inalienable right to self-determination,
and the fact that before 1821 Great Britain had acquired
good title over all that is today Belize by virtue of acquisitive
prescription and historical consolidation. Belize also relies
on two boundary treaties between Guatemala and the United
Kingdom that definitively demarcate the frontier between
Belize and Guatemala.
This
booklet sets out the oral arguments made by Belize to the
Facilitators and to the Secretary General. The Annex is
important. It includes the report from Foreign Minister
Pedro de Aycinena to the Guatemalan Chamber of Deputies
in 1860 giving Guatemala’s rationale for the 1859 boundary
treaty. It also includes the 1931 Exchange of Notes which
reveals the categorical position of the Government of Guatemala,
as late as 1931, respecting the boundary between Belize
and Guatemala.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Belmopan
May, 2001
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