The rift between SATIIM, the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management and U.S. Capital Energy continues to deepen. And this time SATIIM says it's government that's moving the goalposts to favor U.S. Capital Energy. Now SATIIM says it's gone too far as the Ministry is allowing a Guatemalan company hired by U.S. Capital to lay what's called geophone cables in the Sarstoon Temash National Park.
Those cables will run across the border to an oil field in Guatemala and according to the agreement are for the purpose of, "acquiring a complete picture of the subsurface formation under the territory of Guatemala...adjacent to the southern border of Belize." Today Greg Choq told us that the Ministry is allowing the Guatemalan company to the seismic testing that the court would not allow U.S. Capital Energy to do.
Greg Choq, Executive Director - SATIIM
"It seems that they are using their company from Guatemala to do what U.S. Capital Energy was stopped from doing in Belize now that they've been required to do an EIA as stipulated by the court. Definitely it is an act of bad faith. What has happened is we initially have appealed the decision of the court and it was based on a discussion I had with the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, and many members of Cabinet that there was a political solution to the issues that have been raised by SATIIM. We agreed to withdraw the appeal and in hindsight maybe we should not have because the activities and the actions of government so far have lead me to believe that there are acting in bad faith."
Jules Vasquez,
You all have said previously that you all would block entrance into the park, that was another stage of the EIA starting up, but it is still the same spirit of bad faith. Is that something you all are still prepared to do if the EIA does not meet your expectations?
Greg Choq,
"Absolutely."
Choq also alluded to concerns about what he feels is the possibility that if contiguous cross border oil fields are discovered, the oil in Belize could be accessed and pumped from a rig in Guatemala.
