Is ‘Belice es nuestro’ outdated?

Posted: Friday, December 21, 2018. 9:40 a.m. CST.

By BBN Staff: ‘Belice es nuestro’ is a popular slogan used by Guatemalans to firmly express their sentiments that Belize is a part of Guatemalan territory.

Over the last few days, Belizean journalists were in Guatemala City interviewing politicians, attorneys, civil society members, members of Guatemalan’s elections and boundaries offices, researchers and other Guatemalan citizens.

Carlos Amador of the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial (CACIF) Associations in Guatemala told journalists that the ‘Belice es nuestro’ statement is outdated.

According to Amador, Guatemalans are not seeking to gain territory from Belize but rather to solve the long-standing dispute and define the borders of both countries.

But, while in Guatemala, journalists encountered that several official offices had a Guatemalan map with Belize included as a part of Guatemala.

We observed a police vehicle with the map of Guatemala that included Belize as part of its territory.

BBN’s Zoila Gonzalez asked Amador why Guatemala continues to include Belize in its map, if the statement is so outdated and if Guatemala was not claiming territory.

“Well I can go back to the presentation, because in a meeting, they explained all the information surrounding this referendum and they were quite emphatic in saying well, the Government and the official publications must draw the map of Guatemala with a dotted line with Belize. Why? Because that is what we agreed upon…The petition we were given were very emphatic on the way you draw the map. We cannot make a straight line because it is undefined,” Amador explained.

While Amador stated that the official way of drawing the Guatemalan map includes Belize with a dotted border line, we pointed out to him that the maps on the police vehicles and drivers licenses did not carry the dotted line.

Amador told us that the main objective of going to the ICJ is to erase the dotted line and draw a straight line.

 

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