Illegal Guatemalan Settlements Verified to be outside
Adjacency Zone

Belmopan - 13 February, 2001.
Three Guatemalan settlements, located at Rio Blanco, Machaquila and Valentin Camp are indeed outside the Adjacency Zone, on the eastern side.

This was verified by measurements taken by the Pan American Institute of Geography and History which were presented to delegations from Belize and Guatemala on February 7th at the Organization of American States headquarters in Washington DC during a planning meeting for the upcoming examination of Guatemala’s territorial claim to Belize.

The facilitators of the negotiations, Sir Shridath Ramphal and Paul Reichler, agreed to examine the survey data and make a determination after the head of the Belizean delegation Ambassador Assad Shoman told them it would be difficult for Belize to proceed on with the meeting’s previously scheduled agenda without addressing this outstanding issue.

The discovery of the settlement at Machaquila in January lead to increased tensions between Belize and Guatemala, since both parties had agreed in November to “confidence building measures” which included the designation of an adjacency line between the two countries and banning new settlements within the surrounding adjacency zone.

The zone extends one kilometre to the east and one kilometre to the west of the line.

The November agreement also includes protocols for removing any settlers who venture into the zone after October 1, 2001.

At an emergency meeting in mid-January, Belize and Guatemala agreed to assist the Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH, an OAS affiliate of which Belize is a member, to determine the coordinates of the reference markers at Gracias a Dios, Garbutt’s Falls and Aguas Turbias, and to identify the Adjacency Line and Adjacency Zone along those points.

The parties also agreed to accept the Institute’s findings and the facilitators’ decision on the settlements in question.

As it turns out, Belize was correct in its belief, based on Global Positioning System (GPS) readings taken by members of the BDF, that the three settlements were outside the zone.

In fact only one dwelling, located in Valentin Camp was determined by the PAIGH to be inside the zone.

The next step is for a joint commission --three members from Belize and three from Guatemala--to take a census of the people in question and to advise them that they must move to new locations west of the adjacency line.

This must be carried out within seven days of the signing of the agreement in Washington.

The Guatemalan government will compensate all settlers who comply for their crops and buildings. The Belizean government will move those who do not.

The exercise will be carried out using the protocols established in the November agreement and both Belize and Guatemala have agreed to work together to ensure a smooth and peaceful movement of the people.

Both also agree the removal of the settlements is essential to the progress of the negotiating process and does not constitute or imply any waiver of the sovereign rights or claims to the territory in question.

To try an avoid any future incidents, Guatemala has agreed to actively seek to discourage its people from settling to the east of the Adjacency Line and to publicize the data collected by the PAIGH to ensure such incidents do not occur again.

The Belize Defense force will continue to patrol outside the zone to discourage illegal settlements.

A time frame and procedure for Guatemala to present its territorial claim, for Belize to respond, and for the merits of the arguments of each side to be examined was established by the end of the three days. The first written submission will be made by Guatemala by March 31, 2001.

The Belizean delegation was headed by Ambassador Assad Shoman and includes Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs David Gibson, Ambassadors Lisa Shoman, Eamon Courtenay, Moises Cal, Salvador Figueroa, Fred Martinez and Stuart Leslie.