PM Barrow and President Morales Agree that I.C.J. is the Way to Go

Dean Barrow

As we said earlier, Prime Minister Dean Barrow and President Jimmy Morales held bilateral discussions ahead of the SICA summit today. Leaders of both countries spoke on the upcoming I.C.J. referendum scheduled for April tenth 2019. Guatemala held its referendum in April last year. The vote there was a “YES” and the turnout was twenty-six percent. President Morales also brought up the I.C.J. during the SICA Summit. According to PM Barrow, Morales told the region’s leaders that the best option to have the dispute resolved is to leave it in the hands of the International Court of Justice.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“He in his remarks to the summit mentioned the referendum. Unfortunately that happened just at the time that I had left for quick bathroom break. The secretary general sent me a note to say that President Morales had said something to the effect, I didn’t hear it myself, that he thought this was the way to go so that we can get rid of the problem once and for all. I will tell you that in the bilateral I had with him this was also his position; he is saying that he is committed to peace with Belize. Of course the question of the Sarstoon came up. I raised the question on the Sarstoon. His response was well once we go to court that together with everything else will be dispose of. So I have no doubt that he truly believes that the referendum, if in fact Belize votes to go to the referendum will put an end to the issue. I truly believe that Guatemala absolutely knows that Guatemala will have to respect the ICJ ruling and basically that’s where that stood. Until April tenth, Belize is still pressing for us to try and come up modus prevendi for the Sartstoon that would guarantee that our rights are respect but I can’t tell you that I was able to achieve that today.”