Border Insecurity

By anthony sylvestre

In the summer of ’93 the country of Belize was buzzing with a whirlwind of excitement called the Belize Games. It was a great time to be a teenager and to be a part of history- either as a participant, spectator or volunteer in the first Belize Games. Young athletes proudly represented their district in the track and field, indoor and outdoor games. The rivalry, camaraderie, exposure and exchanges of talents and cultures amongst the athletes from the Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize, Stann Creek and Toledo Districts were breathtaking.

The PUP was in Government and basking in an incredible popular support of the electorate, after having edged out the UDP in the 1989 elections three and a half years earlier. The Prime Minister at the time, the Right Honourable George Price, on June 1^st called snap general elections – a full 15 months before it was constitutionally due.

It was set for 30^th June. It caught the Opposition UDP totally unawares. And as was said, Belize was PUP country. The PUP’s campaign slogan was “Building on Success”, a subconscious conjuring of the imaginations of Belizeans of even more impressive developments that were to come with another PUP government. The PUPs were clearly the odds on favourite.

But then the unexpected started to play out!

The British had announced a couple weeks earlier that it would be withdrawing its troops which had remained in Belize for ages guarding, protecting and defending us against the enemy to the West, Guatemala. Meanwhile, on the western front, political instability erupted in Guatemala as President Jorge Serrano, who in 1991 was the first Guatemalan President to recognized Belize’s sovereignty, had to bolt from that country  and seek asylum in Mexico.

So what seemed at the calling of the general elections to be a sure win for the PUP gradually begun to fade.

The panic and fear of Belizeans being invaded and terrorized by Guatemalans engulfed the nation. The UDP which had formed a coalition with NABR immediately began to make inroads in the border constituencies; that is to say, the Cayo and Toledo Districts. The PUP lost 4 of those 6 constituencies. And the PUP lost seven constituencies nationally by less than 50 votes: Collet by 1, Caribbean Shores by 40, Stann Creek by 34, Cayo North by 18, Toledo West by 22, Toledo East by 4 and Orange Walk North by 5 votes. The sheer panic of Guatemalans invading and having no British troops at the borders to defend us no doubt sent voters in revolt of the PUP. The Guatemalan issue, then, is the single most emotive issue in Belizean politics, capable at any moment to shift the political tectonic plates.

Fast forward to December, 2009 now as the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sedi Elrington has made it known to the world that Belize’s borders with Guatemala is “artificial”. Now dig that? Our Minister of Diplomacy (which really is the art of conveying a rough point in an appetizing manner) has told the world that there is no border separating Belize and Guatemala; and that there is not much difference between the people.

Now for a people who feel so strongly against any type of Guatemalan usurpation of Belize (whether they call it squatting, incursion, settlement in adjacency zone) this comment by of all people our Diplomatic Minister has justifiably incensed Belizeans. We Belizeans are really “touchy” ‘bout this Guatemala issue; our border security is undeniably the greatest issue for us. Without realizing it, Sedi has internationally declared that it is okay for Guatemalans to come and go and do as they please in Belize. The Minister of Diplomacy seems to have forgotten what is the rationale for having borders. Ask any landowner and they will tell you the necessity for there to be boundaries which carves out their space of land. Man, these things are done to prevent people from fighting with each other.

But maybe, just maybe, the Minister views his comment as an ingenious way to end the Belize Guatemala dispute; that what he is trying to say is that if there are no borders between the two countries, then the land mass that is now Belize and Guatemala belongs to both countries jointly. And if both countries own the land jointly, they both have equal rights to use the land in the same way and there then is no need for a dispute. Truth be told, there is a legal principle called joint tenancy where two or more persons can own the same piece of land at the same time and having the same interest. Hmmm! And there we were thinking that the Minister was being idle and dangerous.

But on the real though, the Minister of Diplomacy has exposed our borders to further insecurity by leaps and bounds with his comment.  And rather than the Foreign Minister apologizing for the obvious gaffe he made with his “artificial border” comment, he has arrogantly resorted to lecturing Belizeans on how to use the dictionary. The Minister perhaps thinks that we are in Alice in Wonderland and he can give words meanings he wants, even in the face of its obvious contradiction. It reminds me of Humpty Dumpty who in speaking to Alice said: “There are plenty of hard words there. ‘Brillig’ means four o’clock in the afternoon time when you begin broiling things for dinner. … ‘mimsy’ is flimsy and miserable…

“And ‘mome raths’?” said Alice?

“Well a ‘rath’ is a sort of green pig: but ‘mom’ I’m not certain about. I think it’s short for ‘from home’—meaning that they’d lost their way, you know.”

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