BTV Urges Government Action After Aggressive Sarstoon River Encounter

The Belize Territorial Volunteers (BTV) is calling on the government to take decisive action after they were aggressed on the Sarstoon River.  The Belize Territorial Volunteers made its annual September trip to the Sarstoon Island this weekend.  Each year, the BTV would go with a Belize flag which they would place on the island, signaling Belize’s sovereignty.  After circling the island, however, the Guatemalan Armed Forces (GAF) approached the volunteers.  The situation escalated to the point where the GAF was threatening to ram into the BTV boat.  Love News spoke with Wil Maheia who says this encounter was perhaps the most aggressive encounter.   

Wil Maheia, Belize Territorial Volunteer: “By the time we finished circling the island the Guatemalan Armed Forces came out of nowhere, like mad bulls coming straight to our boat and they just start acting very, very aggressive and told us that the entire river belongs to them and that we need to get out of the river right now. If not, we need to go get clearance in Livingston before we enter the river. And we kept on saying no, part of the river belongs to Belize. At this time, we were not even close to the Sarstoon Island. We were on the banks of the Sarstoon River itself and he insisted that we move. And then he started acting very aggressive. As you can see from the video where he told his captain to reverse their boat and to really slam into coming at our boat with full speed, which, you know, basically to crash into our boat with full speed. He also told us, as you could listen to the video, where he said he can shoot our engines. You know, so, I mean it was totally out of order. This time was definitely more aggressive in the fact that they did not care that women was on board, they did not care that children was on board. They just rammed our boat and they kept, they didn’t ram it just once, they rammed it three times and we realized that, you know what, in the interest and for the safety of the people on board then we kind of like backed off and returned to the forward operating base at Sarstoon. They rammed our boat on the banks on the north side of the Sarstoon River. So we were not even on the Sarstoon Island when they did that. We were on the banks of the Sarstoon River. So, you know, I mean, there’s no reason for them to do that. We were just there. We had an artist on board. We were singing the Belize at 43 song you know, just showing our love for Belize.”

Maheia says he is yet to get a response from the government, but he hopes that the silence is not an indication of their efforts in addressing the issue.

Wil Maheia, Belize Territorial Volunteer: “I’m hoping that the government could do something about it so far. Until this time we have not heard a word from the government for us to give the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Defense an account. We need the government to get serious about this. The other day when the issue came up between the Palestinians and Israel the government of Belize was one of the first ones to talk about severing relationships and take a stand. You know, so if they could do that for other people, why can’t they do that for their own people? I mean, is this government serious or what? I mean, we need to take a stand. I would like to hear from Minister Courtenay. He was one of the ones who issued a strong release when it came to the Israel-Palestinian situation. Where is that release when it comes to Belize- Guatemala? The Guatemalans clearly aggressed, disrespected us, assaulted us. If we had any other boat doing that to us inside Belize charges would have been filed because they disrespected us, they assaulted us, they threatened us. When is our government going to do something about that? We are waiting.”