Tensions at Belize's southern boundary on the Sarstoon have been high in the past few weeks - with repeated, aggressive incursions from the Guatemalan military, harassing, haranguing and intimidating the Belize Territorial Volunteers twice last month. In the first instance, the GAF soldiers snatched several Belizean flags, and last Friday, they had another showdown, with the Guatemalans insisting that the BTV were in their territory - when they were right In front of the BDF Forward Operating Base..
It's a volatile situation, teetering on the edge of violence. Today, the PM pleaded to the BTV - or any other Belizeans who want to traverse the Sarstoon - not to antagonize the GAF. While he says that Belizeans should be able to move freely, he emphasized that our soldiers aren't much of a match against the Guatemalan military.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well, I have not gotten the report. I need to start with that. But most importantly, I think that we need to continue to point out to the Guatemalans that a portion of the Sarstoon belongs to Belize. The entire Sarstoon does not belong to Guatemala."
"And we need to continue to use the diplomatic channels. We need to be realistic. We have about a thousand soldiers. Guatemala has probably about 19,000-20,000. They have gun ships. They have all the latest equipment and technology to go to war and we don't. So we could never reach to the point where we say we're going to pick up our guns against Guatemala. So we have to use diplomacy. Minister Courtenay, at every opportunity that he has when he meets his counterparts, he would express concerns and also to write very strong-worded diplomatic notes to the OAS, to the UN, to the Americans, to the British, to everybody that cares to listen. But at the same time, we also need to be a bit careful. And I say that hesitantly. I say that, for instance, if you have a bull, a wild bull in your land, you're not going to go and jump up in front of that bull and wave your flag because it's going to attack you. What you need to do to see how you could pen the bull and how you could deal with it. I use that as an analogy to make the point that we also can't be seen to be taunting the Guatemalans. Because, God forbid, one day, one of these people were to accidentally pull the trigger or whatever. Then what?"
"So we need to be careful. And I urge the territorial volunteers to be very careful, whilst we accept what they're doing and we understand that they are in our territory and Belizeans are supposed to be free to move anywhere in the country including the Sarstoon, but because of the tense situation with the military in that area I'm urging them to be careful. I mean thy take children out there sometimes and God forbid something were to happen, what are we going to do? we can't invade Guatemala as much as we'd like to but we can't. So what we have to do again using diplomatic channels, we go to the UN and decry Guatemala behavior or aggression in our land."
And today, the BTV issued a press release stating that they had a historic meeting with the government. During this meeting, GOB reps expressed their concern for safety, to which the BTV reassured them that they are not trying to antagonize the GAF. The BTV also suggested extra patrols, and volunteered their assistance, which the government accepted. The two have committed to follow up meetings and continuous dialogue.
