Belize Issues - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Disputes - international

Belize-Guatemala: Demarcated but insecure boundary due to Guatemala’s claims to more than half of Belizean territory.  Line of Adjacency operates in lieu of an international boundary to control influx of Guatemalan squatters onto Belizean territory. Smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and human trafficking for sexual exploitation and debt bondage are all problems. Belize lacks resources to detect and extradite impoverished Guatemalan peasants squatting in Belizean rain forests in the remote border areas. At present, Belize and Honduras 12-nm territorial sea claims close off Guatemalan access to Caribbean in the Bahia de Amatique. Maritime boundary remains unresolved pending further negotiation.

Belize-Honduras: Honduras claims the Belizean-administered Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize in its constitution, but agreed to a joint ecological park around the cays should Guatemala consent to a maritime corridor in the Caribbean under the OAS-sponsored 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum.

Belize-Mexico: Belize and Mexico are working to solve minor border demarcation discrepancies arising from inaccuracies in the 1898 border treaty. Transshipment of illegal narcotics, smuggling, human trafficking, illegal immigration, and the growing of marijuana in very low population areas are all issues in the region today.

Illicit drugs

a transit country for illegal drugs, mainly cocaine, originating from countries in South America; low domestic drug consumption problem outside of recreational cannabis

NOTE: The information regarding Belize on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Belize 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Belize 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.