NY Times Delves into Belize-Guatemala Border Dispute: BTV Confrontation Highlighted

The New York Times has published an article on the confrontation between the Belize Territorial Volunteers and the Guatemalan Armed Forces in Belize’s waters. The article titled “This Centuries-Old Border Dispute Pits an Army against Unarmed Volunteers” digs into the issues faced by the BTV when patrolling the Sarstoon River. A journalist from the international media outlet joined the BTV on one of its journeys and detailed his experience after the group was approached by the Guatemalan military. Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde spoke about the news piece and why he feels it was important. 

Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister: “No I haven’t read it. I’ve only heard some rumblings but we know that this has been a perennial problem. We know that perennially the Guatemalan Armed Forces have been bullies there and it’s one of the reasons that I imagine a whole bunch of people voted for this matter to go to the ICJ so that we can have a settlement once and for all. I am not as hopeful as those persons. I’ve never been as hopeful as those persons but it’s a vexing problem and it’s one that we’ve had perennially had to battle with, had to grapple with. There’s always the hope that when you have a new president they say the right things and that they would follow that up by actually having cooperation and engagement with our Prime Minister so that we can be friendly neighbors and be better neighbors and we’ve been waiting for an agreement there for the longest. So the New York Times is finally getting a hold of what we’ve known for the longest, they’ve finally discovered that and so I guess they will make a big deal about it but we’ve had to live with it for all this time. Hopefully not for very much longer.”

The article can be read on the New York Times website.