2. Study Prepared in Response to Presidential Review Memorandum NSC–171
Presidential Review Memorandum NSC–17
Review of United States Policy
Toward Latin America
[Omitted here is material unrelated to Belize and Guatemala.]
—Belize: This colony, seeking independence from the U.K., poses a disproportionate problem in terms of its present population of 140,000. While the British are eager to give Belize its independence and be rid of a burden, Guatemala has threatened to invade Belize if its historical territorial claim is not satisfied. The U.S., for its part, is unwilling to compel the Belizeans to relinquish part of their territory to Guatemala. Guatemala has little international support for its claims, but current efforts to settle this dispute are foundering on the issue of territorial cession. The prospect of Cuban intervention cannot be ignored.
US policy has been to counsel moderation on both sides, while making clear that we do not intend to assume the role of a mediator, arbitrator, or guarantor at the present time. A US effort to mediate in [Page 6] the late 1960’s was an abject failure, used by both sides to avoid serious negotiations.2
[Omitted here is material unrelated to Belize and Guatemala.]
On the Belize issue, the options are:
Option A: Encourage the UK and Belize to make sufficient territorial concession to Guatemala so that the issue goes away.
Option B: Counsel moderation, leave it to the contending parties to work out a solution, and avoid involvement.
Option C: Encourage Guatemala to abandon its pretensions and claims to Belize territory.
Under the first or third option, we would align ourselves with one party or another in an intractable situation, would risk the same failure as greeted our mediation efforts in 1965–68, and would necessarily alienate as much support on one side as we might pick up on the other. Under Option B, which would satisfy neither contending party, we would keep the door ajar, counsel moderation on both sides, encourage others such as the IDB to get involved with a financial assistance package as part of an eventual settlement, and be prepared to involve ourselves in a constructive way if and when the contending parties might finally near a settlement on their own.
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Council, Institutional Files, Box 38, PRM/NSC–17 (1). Secret. Under a March 12 covering memorandum, Hornblow forwarded Presidential Review Memorandum NSC–17, dated January 26, directing a broad review of U.S. policy toward Latin America, including U.S. policies on the territorial dispute over Belize, to the Vice President; the Secretaries of State, Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Labor, and Commerce; the Attorney General; the Representative to the United Nations; the Administrator of the Agency for International Development; the Special Trade Representative; the Chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and the Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the United States Information Agency. PRM/NSC–17 is scheduled for publication in Foreign Relations, 1977–1980, vol. XXIV, South America; Latin America Region. Printed here is a portion of an undated paper entitled “Territorial Disputes,” attached at Tab 8 to the March 12 memorandum.↩
- British Honduras became a crown colony in 1862. The colony gained full internal self-government under a ministerial system in 1964. Guatemala’s Constitution claimed all of the territory of Belize. The British and Guatemalan Governments formally requested direct mediation by the United States in the UK-Guatemala territorial dispute over British Honduras in 1965. Secretary of State Rusk authorized the proposal of “a prominent and distinguished citizen or citizens of the United States to undertake the mediation.” The Department appointed Bethuel M. Webster, a New York City lawyer and former member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, as mediator with Ambassadorial rank. Despite numerous meetings over a 2-year period with the British, Guatemalans, and British Hondurans, Webster was unable to achieve a resolution to the dispute. Rusk presented the Guatemalan and British Ambassadors with a draft treaty in 1968. The British and Guatemalan Governments both indicated that the draft treaty was unacceptable. British Honduras was officially renamed Belize in 1973, and the colony gained independence on September 21, 1981. For documentation on the 1965–1968 mediation, see Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, vol. XXXI, South and Central America; Mexico, Documents 76–78, 103, and 113.↩