A territorial dispute exists between the two Central American countries of Belize and Guatemala. In the latter half of the 1600s and all through the 1700s, there were many treaties made between the countries of Britain and Spain about territories in the Americas. It had been decided that the territory of Belize was a part of Spanish territory but the British people could make use of the land, certain areas only and for particular purposes. The region was never completely under the control of either the British or the Spanish at that point of time, and the British had continually trespassed the limits imposed on them by the treaties. Once the Spanish Empire collapsed, Guatemala declared that it had the sovereign rights of Spain to that territory.
Guatemala and Britain negotiated the Wyke-Aycinena Treaty in 1859 regarding the disputed area. The treaty stated that Guatemala would recognise British sovereignty over the region and formed the modern-day boundary lines of Belize. The treaty also had an article about building a mutually beneficial road, though it was never built. Shortly after this treaty the territory became a crown colony under British rule as British Honduras.
Throughout the 20th century, tensions flared up intermittently between Guatemala and British Honduras. A series of notes in 1931 were exchanged between Guatemala and the UK, confirming concrete markers implementing part of the 1859 border lines, showing that the treaty was being upheld by both parties at this point. Less than 10 years later, Guatemala renewed its claims on the area, using the broken promise of the road as justification for the 1859 treaty to be void. Britain stationed troops in British Honduras to secure the region against Guatemalan invasion and many negotiations attempting to resolve the dispute took place over the following decades. Belize and the British pursued a path to independence, eventually culminating in the United Nations passing a resolution to guarantee Belizean independence. In an attempt to settle the dispute before Belize's official independence in 1981, Guatemala, the UK, and Belize negotiated the Heads of Agreement treaty. The treaty was vehemently rejected by the Belizean people, to the point of causing a state of emergency.
The border dispute has been quieter since Belize's independence. Guatemala eventually recognised the independence of Belize in the early 1990s. In 1999, however, Guatemala shifted its stance back to inheriting claims from the Spanish Empire and the Federal Republic of Central America. Guatemala and Belize both stationed troops at the border, with a one-kilometre "adjacency zone" drawn on either side of the 1859 treaty borders. In 2008, Guatemala and Belize made a pact to have simultaneous referendums for their voters to send the issue to the International Court of Justice. The referendums passed in both countries by May 2019. In June 2023, both countries have submitted their final written arguments to the International Court of Justice, with oral arguments beginning in November 2025.
History
Early colonial era (1600s–1821)
In 1494, Spain and Portugal agreed to the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the newly discovered American lands along a meridian, with Spain claiming the territories to its west. However, England, like many other powers of the late 15th century, did not recognize the treaty. After Mayan tribes had massacred Spanish conquistadors and missionaries in Tipu and surrounding areas, shipwrecked English seamen, then English and Scottish Baymen, settled by 1638, with a short military alliance with native residents of the Mosquito Coast south of Belize, and often welcoming former British privateers.Bolland, Nigel. A Country Study: Belize (Tim Merrill, editor). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (January 1992).
In the Godolphin Treaty of 1670, Spain confirmed England was to hold all territories in the Western Hemisphere that it had already settled. However, the treaty did not specify which areas were considered settled. English settlers were already in the territory when the treaty was signed, but was not exclusively under British control either, which gave room for Spain to claim sovereignty over the region.
Without recognition of either the British or Spanish governments, the Baymen in Belize started electing magistrates as early as 1738. When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, Britain agreed to demolish British forts in the region and gave Spain sovereignty over the soil, while Spain agreed the Baymen could continue logging wood in the territory. From this treaty until 1859, the territory is now formally referred to as the British Settlement of Belize in the Bay of Honduras, sometimes shortened to "the Bay of Honduras". The 1783 Treaty of Versailles marked where the Baymen could log between the Hondo and Belize rivers. The 1786 Anglo-Spanish Convention was signed to extend the logging border down to the Sibun river and the ability to settle in the nearby St. George's Caye as long as no forts were built and no troops were on the island. All of the aforementioned treaties also specified that the territory could be used only for logging and scavenging within the areas outlined, that Spanish sovereignty still existed in the region and that local government was only to be established for maintaining peace, not for civil nor military purposes.
Spain had several skirmishes with the Baymen, even after the 1786 convention. Spain's last military attempt to dislodge the settlers was the 1798 Battle of St. George's Caye, where Spain failed to capture any land. Regular censuses of the settlement were conducted in 1816.
Late colonial era (1821–1930s)
By the 1820s, the Spanish Empire was quickly losing its grip in Central America and New Spain. New Spain (now Mexico) declared independence in 1821. Guatemala, with other Central American states, declared independence without resistance and, after a brief two-year stint in the First Mexican Empire, the new states formed the Federal Republic of Central America. The new nations claimed they had inherited Spain's sovereign rights in the area. Guatemala's claims were one of two. They either claimed all of the Bay of Honduras, like the Spanish did previously, or they shared claims with Mexico, splitting the land into two along the Sibun River, with Mexico getting the northern half. The latter claim was formed in theory in the early 1800s, but there is speculation that Mexico never wanted to act on claims to the settlement until the 1840s and 50s during the Caste War.
Also in the 1820s, the Baymen had expanded as far south as the Sarstoon River, and much farther west, violating the boundaries of the treaties Britain had agreed to. In 1834, Belizean magistrates defined the boundaries of the settlement as the Hondo on the north, the Sarstoon on the south, and in the west, a line from Garbutt's Falls to the Hondo in the north and to the Sarstoon in the south.
Neither Spain nor Guatemala had any evidence of occupying the newly claimed region, despite technically still being under Spanish sovereignty. Britain also refused to acknowledge the Federal Republic of Central America and negotiate with them over the territory. Instead, Britain deferred to Spain, asking for formal cession of sovereignty. Spain never formally responded to the request, though in 1836, Spain's Foreign Minister indicated Spain would be able to cede the territory to Britain. Guatemala was officially recognized in 1849 by the British government through a commercial treaty.
In 1850, Britain signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which stated that neither Britain nor the U.S. could extend their influence by occupation, by exchanging land, colonization, or building fortifications in Central America. This presented a problem for Britain since the last time the settlement's boundaries were negotiated was in 1786, and the local government had unilaterally declared new expansive boundaries by then.
In the Wyke–Aycinena Treaty of 1859, Guatemala agreed to recognize Britain's sovereignty over the area. The treaty derived its boundary from the Belizean magistrates of 20 years prior, stating the boundary line in Article I as follows:The treaty also specified that these borders had been established before 1850, satisfying the 1850 treaty by merely declaring accepted boundaries for the territory, not extending Britain's influence. Article VII of the treaty also talked about a road being built from "Guatemala to the Atlantic Coast, near the settlement of Belize", though it makes no mention of who pays, who builds nor where it is actually placed in between Belize City and Guatemala's capital. This section of the treaty was put in by Wyke, the British negotiator, by himself, surprising the British. Wyke understood the article to mean that half of the burden of building the road was put onto Britain, and the other half onto Guatemala. Aycinena, the Guatemalan negotiator, understood this article meant that the full burden was to be put onto Britain and Britain alone. The next few years were spent negotiating how to implement the road clause.
In 1862, the Bay of Honduras officially became a crown colony under the name British Honduras. By 1869, negotiations had stalled about the road. Guatemala and Britain tried to negotiate an Additional Convention, which Guatemala flatly rejected. Britain, using Guatemala's refusal, declared that they were free from the obligations of building the road. Guatemala did not agree, and stated the treaty was one of cession of territory with compensation being the road. Britain could never agree to the Guatemalan terms since that would break the 1850 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty as it is effectively a land deal. In 1871, Guatemala experienced a Liberal revolution and in 1884, cast doubts on Britain being compliant with the 1859 treaty. Guatemala never officially declared the treaty void at this time, however.
Mexico's claim on British Honduras was dropped in a treaty with Britain in 1893 to end the Caste War. The Rio Hondo was picked as the boundary line between British Honduras and Mexico, solidifying the "Mexican frontier" portion of the 1859 border and providing some legitimacy to the colony.
1930s–1975 In August 1931, an exchange of notes between the UK and Guatemala reaffirmed the borders from the 1859 treaty. These notes show that Guatemala and the UK wanted to finish the demarcation process of the border in 1929. It is confirmed that both governments' commissioners met and constructed the concrete monument markers for the border. One was constructed on Garbutt's Falls, and another was constructed on Gracias á Dios Falls. The Guatemalan Ministry For Foreign Affairs accepted that these markers were built and defined "part of the boundary line".
Two years later, Guatemala inquired the United Kingdom about complying with Article VII. In 1934, the United Kingdom declared their desire to build a road from Belize City to the edge of Petén, where Guatemala would continue building the road to its capital. Guatemala did not agree to this compromise. Instead, they asked for half of the expense of the road () in 1859, with interest accruing since. Britain, in August 1936, counter offered with half the original 1859 price but no interest and recognition of the 1859 border, which Guatemala did not accept. A month later, President Ubico suggested 3 new proposals: Britain should "return" British Honduras to Guatemala in exchange for Britain should pay to Guatemala and Britain should cede the southern half of British Honduras to Guatemala Britain should cede the same section of land in the previous proposal and pay at a 4% interest rate, with interest accruing from 1859