Belize Issues - 2024

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; an Organization of American States (OAS) mission at the Line of Adjacency assists in implementing Line of Adjacency “confidence building measures,” including periodic coordination between Belizean and Guatemalan security forces, agreed to in 2003; smuggling, narcotics trafficking, small-scale coca production, and human trafficking are all problems near the line; Belize lacks resources to detect and extradite Guatemalans who have established informal settlements, farms, and cattle operations in Belizean rain forests in the remote border areas on the Belizean side of the Line of Adjacency; Belize and Honduras 12-nautical mile 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

Illicit drugs

a significant drug trafficking and transit point between countries in South America and the United States; primary domestic use of narcotics is marijuana and some crack cocaine; a major source of precursor or essential chemicals used in the production of illicit narcotics