Punta Gorda Town Hall Meeting. 8 December

2018

Beautiful people of Punta Gorda and Toledo,

arguably tied with Cayo for the most beautiful

district of Belize. To come here is to see the light, to

breathe the air of struggle and resistance, to be in the

tricontinental meeting place, where the Maya of the

Americas co-mingle with the peoples of Africa and

Asia to form a strong and resilient pillar for the

unbreakable unity of our country Belize, ONE AND

INDIVISIBLE. To come here is to see the

mountains that stand as sentinels to protect our

sovereignty, the River that marks the dividing line,

but also the point of contact and friendship, between

Belize and Guatemala.

1

As the states surrounding Apartheid South Africa

were called the front-line states, so too are you at the

front line of our confrontation with the European

elite that rules Guatemala and oppresses your Maya

and Garifuna brothers and sisters across the border,

brothers and sisters to whom you constantly stretch

out the hands of friendship and solidarity as we

resist the common enemy that seeks to reduce us in

one way or another.

2

Our peoples suffered many decades of colonialism

and slavery, of exploitation and oppression, and just

when we were bound for freedom that elite in

Guatemala sought to rob us of our goal and impose a

new colonialism or grab a piece of our territory, but

with the help of our friends in the Americas, Africa

and Asia, and, yes, inside Guatemala itself, we

achieved our freedom and independence, only to

find that the Guatemalan elite and its tool, the

military, continues to salivate over chunks of our

territory, ready to swallow us up at the least

slackening of our will to live as ONE nation, ONE

people in ONE territory.

3

And now, after decades of fruitless negotiations and

resisting pressures from most powerful countries to

give up this or give up that, we are at the threshold

of an opportunity to GIVE UP NOTHING—NO

RETREAT, NO SURRENDER, but rather fight for

our RIGHTS with weapons and in a forum that

guarantee victory: the evidence and the law, in the

International Court of Justice.

If we refuse to grasp this opportunity and free

ourselves forever from this stifling threat, and

expose future generations to the unpredictable

effects of its continuance, history will not be kind to

those who for petty political reasons bamboozled our

people into voting no and miss the opportunity to

FREE ourselves from this claim, from this threat,

from this real and present danger. Hope is here!

4

But let us imagine for a moment that you the people

will resist those blandishments, resist the peddled

fiction, examine the facts, and vote YES to freedom

on 10 April 2019. What will happen? Within a

month we will inform the Secretariat of the ICJ that

our people are READY TO FIGHT FOR

FREEDOM. Within twelve months Guatemala must

state its claim, and within 12 months after that we

will reply and rubbish their claim, AND RUBBISH

IT WE WILL. Guatemala will then have 6 months to

seek to reply to our conclusive rebuttal, but they will

have no new facts, no new evidence, no supporting

law, to bolster their reply. They gave their best shot

to one of the best lawyers of his generation, Manley

Hudson, in 1950, and he told them: you have no

case.

5

They gave their best shot in 2001 to the OAS and the

Facilitators, and they said: you can’t get any piece of

Belize, not a grain of sand. They gave their best shot

to the European lawyer Eric Suy in 1999, asking him

for an Opinion that would validate their claim, and

he told them, sorry, you paid me well to give you an

Opinion, but I have to say: you ain’t got no claim.

And so, as much as some Belizean patriots are trying

hard to give Guatemala arguments that would make

them beat us at the ICJ, the truth is they ain’t got

poop. In any case, we will have another six months

to reply to their reply, the last word, and then the ICJ

Judges, our judges that we have voted for in several

General Assembly elections, will say: LET THE

GAMES BEGIN.

6

And then 15 Judges, who we elect for a period of

nine years, will try our case. Some of them will be

different from those who are there now, as new ones

will have been elected by that time, but these are the

present judges of the Court. As you can see, they are

not all old white men.

What are the Judges allowed to decide, what scope

do they have for making decisions? Can they do as

they please or try in some way to show sympathy for

Guatemala?

NO. They must follow their terms of reference,

which are as stated in the Special Agreement: this is

what we are mandating the Judges to consider:

[Article 2 on Screen emboldened as follows]

7

The Parties request the Court to determine in

accordance with applicable rules of international

law as specified in Article 38(1) of the Statute of

the Court ANY AND ALL LEGAL claims of

Guatemala against Belize to land and insular

territories and to any maritime areas pertaining

to these territories, to DECLARE THE RIGHTS

THEREIN OF BOTH PARTIES, and to

DETERMINE THE BOUNDARIES between

their respective territories and areas.

Since you have been told otherwise, you have the

right to know WHY these words are there, WHAT

they mean and HOW they will affect our case.

8

All those highlighted words are there because we

put them there. We negotiated the Special

Agreement over several months in 2008 in close

consultation with a team of international lawyers

who collectively have spent thousands of hours

before the ICJ fighting and winning dozens of cases,

and they advised us on the best wording possible to

protect our rights and interests.

You have a RIGHT TO KNOW that when

Guatemala presented its draft of the Special

Agreement in early July 2008, they did not have the

word LEGAL before claims, and did not want to put

it in, because they know they cannot sustain a

LEGAL claim, and wanted the Court to decide on

the basis of fairness and sympathy for the devil.

9

WE insisted on putting the word LEGAL, and won.

And now some patriots, believe it or not, are

wanting to take out that word; ask them who would

benefit from that.

You have a RIGHT TO KNOW why the words

ANY AND ALL are there. Again, we insisted on

putting those words in, to prevent Guatemala from

claiming something in this case and when they lose

come back and claim something else. This way, they

must present EVERY claim they can imagine or

invent, and when they lose, THAT’S IT, they can’t

come back for another bite of the cherry. CHERRY

GONE! And now some patriots, believe it or not,

are wanting to take out those words; ask them who

would benefit from that.

10

Likewise, our international lawyers advised us that

since we will be asking the Court not only to

confirm the borders set in the 1859 Treaty but also to

determine our maritime boundaries, we should insert

the words to declare the rights therein of both

Parties, to enable the Court to say what rights both

parties have in the several maritime areas, IN

STRICT ACCORDANCE WITH THE UN

CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEA.

And, crucially most importantly, we would ask the

Court to DETERMINE the boundaries between the

two countries, because although the 1859 Treaty

already determined those borders, we need the

International court to confirm that, since it is the

only organ under the UN Charter with the power to

do that and have the Security Council give effect to

its ruling. 11

Ah, but you are worried because some patriots have

been shouting that the government of Belize sold out

or was fooled into giving the Court blanket powers

to determine the borders, which means they can

throw away the 1859 Treaty and just draw a line

wherever they wish, at the Sibun, or at the Monkey

River, and say that is the new border which Belize

allows us to determine.

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You have the RIGHT TO KNOW that that is not

true, you have the right to know the truth:

The Judges, are forced, yes, obliged, in the sense

that THEY HAVE NO CHOICE but to determine

the borders in accordance with applicable rules of

international law as specified in Article 38(1) of the

Statute of the Court, which states that they must

apply the law of treaties, international customary

law, general principles of law and previous judicial

decisions. They have NO CHOICE. They must

apply those and determine the boundaries

accordingly.

13

No time to go into them all, I only have 20 minutes

and Dickie 30, but just the first will suffice. What

Treaty can Guatemala present signed by itself and

Britain or Belize that shows any agreed border other

than that stated in the 1859 and 1931 treaties?

NONE, unless those patriots know of any, in which

case they have an obligation to tell and show. Let’s

see it please. But we do have those treaties

mentioned, and we will show them, and once the

Court declares them binding, based on the evidence

and the law, it MUST DETERMINE THE

BOUNDARIES ACCORDINGLY.

14

YES BUT, say those patriots, but the Special

Agreement is a treaty too, and it is newer and more

binding than 1859, and that Special Agreement

annuls the 1859 treaty, because we give the Court

the right to draw boundaries as they have a mind,

change our borders and create new borders, they say

that’s what DETERMINE means, and that’s why we

should say no to ICJ.

What evidence and what law do they have to support

that false contention?

15

We are not experts in international law, but we

consulted such experts, and they assured us, and you

have the RIGHT TO KNOW that the Special

Agreement in no conceivable way annuls the 1859

and 1931 treaties, but rather PRIVILEGES THEM

AS PRIME SOURCES OF EVIDENCE which the

Court MUST consider and upon which it MUST

apply the LAW AND THE EVIDENCE and come

to the only conclusion possible in the circumstances:

the boundaries that exist are those agreed by both

parties, agreed by both parties, in the two binding

and living Treaties of 1859 and 1931.

16

And with the joint demarcation that follows that

ruling, we shall at last have a line on the ground that

both countries must respect, with clear maritime

borders that will enable us to benefit without fear

from our resources, we will be better able to control

our borders to prevent deforestation and the pillage

of our land and water resources, etc.

That means going physically on the ground and

marking the border with monuments and clearing all

the way along the line, so that everybody, at last and

for the very first time in history, can see clearly

where the border is, demarcated by both countries,

and know that it cannot be crossed without

permission. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? A time to

shout HALLELUIAH?

17

And, most especially, ending the claim will bring

legal certainty, which is what motivated the

Guatemalan government to seek a judicial

settlement, and this will bring peace dividends:

security and stability, the promotion of investment,

trade and development, and leave us freer to combat

those ills which are pressing and essential to

confront for the good of the country and its people:

rampant and broad-based corruption in the body

politic, unacceptable levels of poverty and

inequality, inadequate provision of health, education

and other social services.

18

Do not be misled by faux patriots; they say

Guatemala has a strong case, never yet revealed, but

carefully hidden for decades under their sleeve,

which will make the Court give them a piece of our

land, and SO ARE THEY ALL, ALL

PATRIOTIC MEN. And they say we set aside the

1859 Treaty with the Special Agreement, putting

false arguments in the hands of Guatemala, but

patriots they all are, all patriotic men.

And those patriots say “the Sarstoon has been taken

over by Guatemala and it is no longer our southern

border”. And I, and you, say, SAY WHAT? The

Sarstoon is no longer our border? Go tell the people

of Toledo that! But we can’t criticize them for they

are patriots, all patriotic men.

19

And we have patriots who try to give Guatemala the

argument that in a treaty in 1992 we agreed to vary

our borders, and so the Court will give them land.

Thankfully, though, Guatemala will not be able to

use it, because that document, which you now have

in your hands, says that Belize and Guatemala have

not yet signed a treaty to define our land and

maritime boundaries, but that in the meantime they

agree that any mention of our territories “WILL BE

MADE BASED ON THE EXISTING REFERENCE

MONUMENTS”.

20

And they even say that we owe compensation to

Guatemala, and say how unfair Britain was to

Guatemala, and we must have sympathy for them,

and one patriot even argues that we must give them a

huge chunk of our territorial seas in compensation

for Britain not building a cart road— but

PATRIOTS THEY ARE, ALL PATRIOTIC

MEN.

Well you can ride with them, but I prefer to ride with

a true patriot, a young woman at Toledo

Community College, who asked us yesterday: if we

go to the ICJ and we win, will we claim

compensation from Guatemala for all the damage

they have caused us over the years, for the

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deforestation, for all the resources stolen, for

polluting the waters in the Chiquibul Forest, waters

that almost half of Belizeans depend on for their

supply of clear, pure water?

Now, there’s a patriot! And I say: YES WE WILL!

AFTER WE WIN, WE WILL DEMAND

COMPENSATION! And just like Costa Rica won

compensation for the damage caused by Nicaragua

in an ICJ judgment of 2 February 2018 (and which

Nicaragua has already paid), we shall fight and we

shall win!

Let us not doubt the justice or legal strength of our

cause and our case. IF WE FIGHT, WE SHALL

WIN.

VENCEREMOS.

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