And so while DPM Faber is clearly personally in favour of a "yes" vote, Belize's own referendum seems to be a ways off. Best information suggests that it could happen sometime in the first quarter of 2019.
On Saturday, Belize's Ambassador to Guatemala Alexis Rosado granted the press an interview at the Belize Embassy Headquarters in Guatemala City, and he was asked about that and the accompanying ICJ education campaign that should be ramping up some time soon.
He said that as soon as the voter re-registration exercise is completed later this year, a date will be set:
H.E. Alexis Rosado - Belize Ambassador to Guatemala
"Belizeans largely are people who want to know, want to understand, want to debate the issues and our goal from the public awareness campaign strategy is to make that Belizeans are as informed as possible so that whenever they are called upon to vote, they will take an informed vote. At the end of the day the government will move for a yes vote, but that won't be the thrust of the public awareness campaign. The thrust of the public awareness campaign would be to make sure that the people understand why it is. That we reached this stage? Why did we reach this stage in history where now people are being asked to consider whether we should go to the ICJ or not? If it is that we have launch a full fledge public awareness campaign, what the current budget now provides is similar to what last year's budget provided for and that clearly is not enough. So, we will need to tap it up, double up, triple up or more. We will rely on the international partners to also help us fund part of the campaign, but really, we can't rely on entirely on the international community, they will contribute to whatever they can and we will push them to contribute as much as they can but those processes are slow. When I come to Belize and I do some presentations, one of the complaints I hear all over the place is at people are not hearing enough about the issue and that they want to hear more. Clearly there is a thirst for more information and I think it's the government's obligation to provide it."
Reporter
"Has there been any serious discussion yet, at the top levels of government to start deciding on a date for Belize referendum?"
H.E. Alexis Rosado - Belize Ambassador to Guatemala
"We are programing our campaign to last the end of the year and anticipating that the reregistration exercise which would start next month or next 2 months I'm not too sure. That should finish before the end of the year. Once we have a new list of voters then we should be in a position to move ahead with setting a date."
Later on in the news, we'll take you back to Guatemala City to hear more of what our Western neighbors have to say about their country's territorial claim to Belize.
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