Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE MAYA
The
Maya
in Belize are from three groups - Yucatec, Mopan and Kekchí - and make up around
eleven percent of the population. The Yucatecan Maya also entered Belize to escape the
fighting in the Caste Wars, and most were soon acculturated into the mestizo way of life as
small-scale farmers. The Mopan Maya came to Belize in the 1880s and settled in the hills of
Toledo and the area of Benque Viejo. The last and largest group, the Kekchí, came from the
area around Cobán in Guatemala to work in cacao plantations in southern Belize. Small
numbers still arrive in Belize each year, boosting villages in Toledo.
THE GARIFUNA
The
Garifuna
(see box, p.181) form just over six percent of the population and live mainly in
Dangriga and the villages on the south coast. They are descended from shipwrecked and
escaped African slaves who mingled with the last of the Caribs on the island of St Vincent and
eventually settled in Belize in the years after 1832.
OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS
Another significant group are
East Indians
, established mainly in southern Toledo District, the
descendants of indentured labourers brought over in the late 1860s by a small number of
Confederate refugees seeking to re-establish the plantocracy following defeat in the American
Civil War. More recent Indian immigration has occurred in Belize City.
Though the white, German-speaking
Mennonites
(see box, p.71) form only around four
percent of the population, they undertake the vast majority of agriculture in Belize. Their
opposition to government interference in their religion has over centuries forced them to
move on, but in Belize they appear to have found a secure and permanent home.
The
Chinese
are a small ethnic group, many arriving in the nineteenth century as labourers
on sugar estates in the south. Many more (Taiwanese and Cantonese) arrived in the 1980s.
They are most evident in the lottery, retail and restaurant industries.
An excellent TV
documentary series
,
Simply Belize: A Cultural Diary
, covers all thirteen ethnic
groups; it is available at the Belize City Museum and some gift shops (see
W
simplybelize.org).
In 1988 Guatemala and Belize established a joint commission to work towards a “just
and honourable” solution to the
border dispute
, and in 1990 Guatemala agreed in
principle to accept the existing border. The only sticking point was the common
boundary of the territorial waters between Belize and Honduras, making it theoretically
possible for Guatemalan ships to be excluded from their own Caribbean ports. The
PUP's response was to draft the
Maritime Areas Bill
in 1991, which allowed Guatemala
access to the sea by restricting Belize's territory between the Sarstoon River and
Ranguana Caye, sixty miles to the northeast. This measure proved acceptable to
Guatemala's President Serrano, and on September 11, with just ten days to go before
Belize's tenth anniversary celebrations, Guatemala and Belize established full
diplomatic relations for the first time.
In 2008, Prime Minister Dean Barrow stated that resolving the border dispute was
one of his leading goals while in of
ce. In December 2008, Belize and Guatemala
signed a special agreement to submit the border issue to the International Court of
Justice (ICJ), but in October 2013 this agreement was suspended. The reality today is
that though both countries are committed to
negotiation
, the failure to reach a
watertight agreement means that the issue will continue to resurface.
1993
1998
2000
The UDP wins a tight
election, and Esquivel
again assumes leadership
as prime minister
The People's United Party
(PUP) wins the national
election, and party leader Said
Musa becomes prime minister
Hurricane Keith roars through in
October, causing destruction in
its wake
