Belize Territorial Volunteers Face Off With Guatemalan Forces

Despite the Prime Minister’s caution, the Belize Territorial Volunteers still proceeded with their trip to the Sarstoon on Saturday.  As was expected, there was a standoff on the Sarstoon River between members of the Belizean military and the Guatemalan Armed Forces. While making their way down the river, four Guatemalan naval vessels with mounted machine guns approached the military and civilian boats, claiming that they were in Guatemalan territory. The BDF and Belize Coast Guard, however, would not budge and asserted that they were in Belizean territory and that the Guatemalans should respect them as such. The standoff continued while the BTV members approached the island and did their activity. According to BTV Leader Wil Maheia, this annual trip is necessary and expresses a point each year to the Guatemalans.

Wil Maheia, Belize Territorial Volunteers: “BDF they were on the dock. We discussed the route and they were covering us from the left side going south and we put a stop in Barranco because we picked up a coupe people there and again we regrouped and we headed towards the mouth of the Sarstoon. We knew right then and there that the Guatemalan Armed Forces would try and bully us but again under the cover of the Belize Defence Force and the Belize Coast Guard they were like a blanket for us and they were telling us look you just stay the course we will provide the cover and we did just that and once we got into the river itself that is when the Guatemalans really started acting like a real bully because they know we were in Belizean territory, they brought their big boats. They had several gun boats I mean bigger than the usual Mexican skiffs of the Guatemalan skiffs that were there in the past. These are more modern boats, bigger engines and you know we were careful because we knew that their boats create a big wave and we didn’t want any water to enter our boats which could have sunk our boat. So we kinda slowed, went in slowly and again under the cover of the BDF and the Coast Guard. Once we got there we made sure that we headed towards the island and we didn’t physically go on the island but we just went right towards the island. We stopped the boat, we put our flags down and we sung the national anthem.”

This marks the third act of Guatemalan aggression within Belizean territory within a week. On Wednesday, Belizean patrols discovered a Guatemalan flag planted on Sarstoon Island, an area well within Belizean waters. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that high-level discussions were immediately held with Guatemala, and strong objections were raised. By Friday, more Guatemalan vessels had crossed into Belizean waters, telling Belizean military patrols that they were in Guatemalan territory. A BDF soldier responded by reading from a prepared statement, explaining that the vessels were, in fact, in Belize and that the Guatemalans needed to respect Belizean sovereignty. The two patrols separated shortly after the exchange without further incident. The third incident was with the BTV on Saturday.