On last night's news, we showed you part one of our exclusive interview with the new Guatemalan Ambassador to Belize, Gorges De La Roche.
He was discussing different aspects of Belize/Guatemala relations and the topic of their ICJ public campaign came up.
On April 15, Guatemalans will go to the polls and vote on whether they want to take their country's territorial claim to Belize to the International Court of Justice.
For months now, the Guatemalan Government has been hosting their public education campaign on the ICJ referendum, and we wondered what kind of feedback they've been getting on this claim to Belize that's almost 200 years old.
We asked the Ambassador about those sentiments from the Guatemalans:
H.E. Georges de la Roche Du Ronzet - Guatemalan Ambassador to Belize
"The fact is that our demographic is very young. We are a young country in Guatemala and most of our population, because they are young, because that's just the nature of our demographic, are unaware with issues. That's why we have being aware of that we launched last year this high gear information campaign to remind people on what the issue is."
"We have of course focused our efforts on certain populations and that's paid off, because there is in certain parts of Guatemala, I won't say complete ignorance, but there is a certain level of ignorance as to what the case is, what the historic case is. Now keep in mind that this wasn't between Guatemala and Belize. This wasn't even our issue. We've inherited this issue. So the campaign we have done has been positive. All our embassies abroad have been also not only sharing the information on the voting procedures what the issues with the officials of other countries, but with Guatemalan populations abroad also so that the word spreads."
"I think it's been a very successful information campaign."
Daniel Ortiz, reporter
"Have you encountered that particular sentiment on the other side? Is it like abroad spectrum where you have Guatemalans who would be more forward thinking and progressive? Is there that sentiment that 'you know what, Belize is ours' - what is the spectrum of sentiments you've encountered?"
H.E. Georges de la Roche Du Ronzet - Guatemalan Ambassador to Belize
"The sentiment, the issue has evolved, has changed a lot in the past 40-50 years. I think that those not so rational people that feel more passionately about the issue on the Guatemalan side are few. There are some people that even make up things that are not fact. But I really think it's a small percentage, very small percentage."
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