And going back to an interview we first showed you yesterday - former foreign Minister during Belize's push to independence, Assad Shoman told us more about how - in the late 70's - the Carter Administration was trying to get Belize to cede a piece of its territory to Guatemala to settle the dispute. He told us about a Good Friday visit to the State Department:
Assad Shoman, Historian/Ambassador
"Don't forget that, for example, in 1978, in the I think it was a good Friday was good Friday in 1978, when Mr. Price and myself went to the State Department, it was like going into a ghost town in there to meet with (former Secretary of State Cyrus) Vance and I believe (Terence) Todman was his assistant when he tried very hard to convince us that Belize must give up some land, something in order to settle the issue with Guatemala. But, you know, that was part of his office, I suppose as president of the USA, but after that, as you say, he became he enabled, he was enabled to do otherwise."
"That was helped by, I think, very strongly by (Omar) Torrijos, but also by the fact that also helped by Torrijos, a lot of Latin American states were supporting Belize then. Even Argentina was supporting Belize. So that, that that that helped him to go ahead and do what he should have done from the beginning, which was fully support Belize's right to self-determination and independence and territorial integrity."
|
