But with all the meetings and confidence building measures over the years, the Guatemalan Army is still making incursions into the Sarstoon, and Guatemalan civilians are still breaching the adjacency zone and creating settlements in Belize's side of the border. While the OAS is not responsible for the Sarstoon, we asked them whether enough is being done in order to prevent these incursions in the adjacency zone.
Antonia Urrejola, Rep of the SecGen of the OAS for Belize & Guate
"The zone is there because of a reason and it's precisely because you have communities from both countries and there will always be incidents and I think if we think there won't be any incidents it's something, we would be lying if we said no, there won't be anymore incidents. I think what is important are two things. First of all, commitment both countries have when we have these incidents to give a solution to them specifically which is something really important among dialogue and secondly the role of the office. The office does verifications each time there is an incident which is being denounced by any of the parties, the office goes and verifies the incidents and that is working and what we have seen in the meeting today and Sergio can give you some of the numbers on that, is that the office is much more effective than it used to be with the incidents. One could say it's never enough work but I think a lot of work has been made. But I just want to underline the importance that both parties always seek for a pacific solution to all of these incidents and I think that's what we have to underline today."
Sergio Lopez, Director, Office of the OAS Adjacency Zone
"In the case of the investigation that we carry out at the office, we see an increase in incidents but we also increased our capacity to respond to that request from both parties. What we're doing this year or the last year is to encourage both countries to seek dialogue on any incident that it will be harder to attend of also to increase the corporation with the armies and also with the diplomatic corps because we're trying to ensure the peace within the region. And with the dialogue with the embassies and also with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in both sides, we also want to show them the reality of the adjacency zone. We see a lot of effort from the local authorities, we see the effort of the local leaders in some of the communities in the adjacency zone to reduce the tensions, to have a great corporation in the communities in Belize and Guatemala and also the communication with us is very good. They see us as a friend, a good mediator, and we want to ensure the same thing for 2026."
