Guatemalan Invasion Crisis in Belize 1975

British-Guatemalan talks concerning the Guatemalan claim on the territory of the crown colony of Belize (formerly British Honduras) resumed in 1973. The negotiations were again broken off as tensions flared in 1975. The Guatemalan government of President Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García threatened to invade Belize in November 1975. Britain responded by sending in additional troops and Harrier jets. Britain kept a battalion of troops, and elements of a squadron of Royal Air Force fighters and ground-attack aircraft in Belize after 1975. In all the British contingent grew from some 750 personnel in 1970 to about 1,500 in the mid-1970s.

By this time, people living in the colony generally agreed that a continued British military presence would be necessary to guarantee security for an independent Belize. Meanwhile, the government of the United Kingdom, frustrated at dealing with the military dominated regimes in Guatemala, allowed the locally elected government of Belize to internationalize its case for independence. For its part, the Belize government felt that by gaining international support, it could strengthen its position, weaken Guatemala's claims, and make it harder for Britain to make any concessions in future negotiations with Guatemala.

In addition, later in 1975, the United States, pressured by Great Britain, stopped certain kinds of military aid to Guatemala. The action was prompted by the recent threat by Guatemala of seizing Belize. The American action was viewed as another step in preventing Guatemala from continuing to menace the colony of Belize.

References

Fighting Never Stopped, 436; Who Will Win?: A Key to the Puzzle of Revolutionary War, 103-4; Belize - A Country Study; List of Presidents of Guatemala.

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