Last night we told you about the hostile encounter between the Guatemalan military and a team from SATIIM led by indigenous rights activist Greg Choq. On Tuesday, Choq and the rangers from SATIIM were on the Sarstoon River, near Belize's southern border when they were detained by armed Guatemalan soldiers in a gunboat. It happened in Belizean territory, in an area that Choq and his SATIIM rangers are tasked to patrol as co-managers of the Sarstoon Temash National Park.
Appearing this morning on Krem Radio's WUB, Foreign Affairs Minister Lisa Shoman said she has made it clear to her Guatemalan counterparts that what happened was unacceptable.
Hon. Lisa Shoman, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"As I understand it very clearly, Mr. Choq and his people were in Belizean territorial waters so they ought not to have been stopped. If I am wrong, I will say that I am wrong but I do not believe that at this point in time Mr. Choq was anywhere, except where he said he was, which is that he was in Belizean territorial waters and therefore a Guatemalan Gunboat should not have come to stop him.
We in fact specifically not only had a difficulty with what occurred to
Mr. Choq but also with the words that were used by the patrol which is that the waters is ours and the land is yours type of situation. The Guatemalan Foreign Ministry knows very clearly that we reject those words in their entirety, that they know very clearly that this is not a situation that we ever wish an occurrence of and I am putting it in very polite language because that's how we'll have to talk to each, politely.
I've taken steps and what I expect to come out of it are several things. In fact the OAS is conducting their own verification and investigation exercise, that's one. If it is found that this is an isolated incident, we will simply say let it not happen again, we don't wish anyone else to go through this. If we find it is a matter of some kind of routine or policy that they've established, then obviously we're going to have to sit down with them and make sure that these policies or these routines do not disrupt the lives of our innocent peace loving citizens who are going about their business."
