And while Fonseca is talking about meaningful engagement - the Guatemalan president Bernardo Arevalo repeated the hardline on Tuesday - even if he couched it in diplomatic language. Arevalo said Belize is the one escalating the tensions on the Sarstoon - and the Guatemalans are just defending what's theirs - which is basically echoing the position of the Guatemalan Ministry ofForeignAffairs:
Bernardo Arevalo, President of Guatemala(In Spanish)
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be issuing a statement today. I believe these incidents should be understood within a broader interpretive framework. First of all, unfortunately, these are recurring incidents over time, specifically in the Sarstoon area, and where the security forces of both countries are involved - and sometimes other actors as well. This is largely due precisely to the fact that there is still no resolution of the territorial differendum that exists between the two countries. The good thing is that both Belize and Guatemala have agreed that this territorial dispute should be resolved by the International Court of Justice, and so we are waiting that is, the phases of the two countries presenting their written arguments have already been completed in recent years. This is not a process that takes months; this is a process that lasts years, and we are awaiting the date for the start of the oral hearings. In other words, both countries are already committed to a legal resolution, and we have agreed that it will be through the courts and the International Court. In the interim, there are these types of situations that occur at the local level, which can be explained in terms of these incidents between troops from one country and the other. We immediately contacted our Belizean counterparts to clear things up. We don't fully understand why Belize, for example, chose to escalate the tone, but I think everyone understands that this is an issue on which we have to be very clear about controlling, preventing it from becoming a problem. From the Guatemalan side, we must be very clear and firm in defending our sovereignty, but above all, in preventing it from becoming a problem that transcends what it is, because we are already committed to the process of resolving the conflict."
Again, that statement was made on Tuesday.
