So what does the prime minister think about this series of aggressive incursions into Belizean territory?
Well, when we spoke to him at 2:00 pm - we don't know if he had seen these latest videos, but he praised the BDF soldiers for their bravery yesterday and stated that even though our army is small compared to the GAF, Belize must continue to stand its ground. He explained what the government did immediately after they were informed that the Guatemalan flag had been placed on Sarstoon island.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I think it's first important for us as Belizeans to recognize the bravery of BDF soldiers. They were surrounded by Guatemalans, I think there were as much as 7 boats, Guatemalan boats and their gun boat was probably about a mile away and I want to commend them for the bravery that they demonstrated and their cool under pressure because this could have quickly gotten out of control. But they stood their ground and made sure to make the point that they are in Belizean territory and the flag had to come down. During that time, our Minister got in touch with the Minister of Defense from Guatemala, Minister
Mira, and Minister Fonseca with the foreign minister from Guatemala so they immediately started working the diplomatic channels and because of that immediate work that we did, the Guatemalans brought down the flag and moved on from within our Belizean territory. We've always said the river is the median line, going north is Belizean territory and going south belongs to Guatemala and that remains. Following the standard procedure, Minister Fonseca through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has written a strong letter of protest to the OAS and also to Guatemala and have started informing all of the friends of Belize, like the United States, Canada, Mexico, the UK and so forth to inform them of that incident. I expect to be at the UN, I leave Belize on the 22nd. During that time, I am expecting to meet with President Arevalo to discuss the situation. President Arevalo has demonstrated great support for Belize and wanting to create closer ties and a relationship between both countries but obviously there seem to be elements within the military that are still classified as old guard and wanting to demonstrate every so often their stance when it comes to the Belize issue but that's an issue that's dying and the old guard, most of them are very old and basically dying and the younger generation are the ones that pretty much recognize that Belize is a free and independent nation and recognize that and we believe that in time, that will work its way out and also the same time at the ICJ we still every confidence hat we will win that case."
And he doubled down on the GAF soldiers acting on their own, and that their actions aren't reflective of the current administration.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Of course it's an act of aggression, they came into our territory without our permission and it is something that we hold very serious and we will not tolerate it but we also have to be realistic, the size of their army compared to ours but we will stand our ground, this is our land and we will not give a single inch to the Guatemalans."
"Obviously there are certain elements within the military that have this aggressive behavior. We know that President Arevalo has been having a lot of problems within his government because nobody expected him to win and he's a reform minded president so he's finding these challenges all over but the Minister of Defense, I met with him already when I went to Guatemala in a meeting with President Arevalo, he also went to great lengths to see how we can work in that area and how we can diffuse the relationship especially the military within the two countries. The problem is not at the high level, it's more at the low level where from time to time you have these hardliners that try to show okay we are not going to give up more land but we all stand firm that Belize is ours and we will do as best as we can to defend what's ours."
