Minister Fonseca Responds to BTV’s Call for Action After GAF River Incident

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francis Fonseca, has weighed in on the recent confrontation between the Belize Territorial Volunteers (BTV) and the Guatemalan Armed Forces (GAF). Last weekend, a group of BTV volunteers traversing the Sarstoon River had their vessel rammed by a Guatemalan military vessel. The situation led to the BTV’s Wil Maheia calling on the government to take swift and decisive action against the GAF. Maheia argued that while the government has chosen to cut diplomatic ties with Israel for their actions in the Gaza Strip, they have failed to address the continuous aggression from the GAF. Today, Fonseca responded to the statements and explained that it’s not as simple as the BTV’s leader makes it out to be.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs: “But what more serious diplomatic standing ? No. Listen we have agreed, the people of Belize have voted for us to resolve this issue through the International Court of Justice. We are pursuing that path to a peaceful resolutions of this matter. You know, no disrespect to Wil I like Wil. Wil has never been in authority. He has never held power. He has never had responsibility for making decisions on behalf of the Belizean people. We have that responsibility. I have that responsibility as Minister of Foreign Affairs and we will exercise that authority with absolute competence, with absolute recognition and respect for the people of this country with their interest. So it’s not about being emotional and beating your chest and going down there and pretending that you’re big and bad. It’s about doing the right thing in the interest of Belize. We’re pursuing a path as I said through the ICJ, we’re committed to that process. We were in Guatemala recently, the Guatemalan government reiterated their commitment to peaceful resolution of this matter through the ICJ. As I said we had very very good discussions with the Ministry of Defense, with the President of Guatemala on all of these issues so there’s no need for any erratic decision on the part of Belize.”

Fonseca went on to speak on the diplomatic channels being used to address the confrontation and why it is important to ensure the government does not seek to aggravate the situation.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs:  “As I said when these incidents occur there are two things that happen. One, the Government of Belize through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs registers a very strong diplomatic protest note which is sent to the Government of Guatemala condemning the actions of the Guatemalan Armed Forces as well as of course affirming, reaffirming Belize’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.  We as well of course report the incident to the Organization of American States, this is part of an agreement that we have between Belize, Guatemala and the OAS that we report these types of incidents. The OAS then acts as a mediator. They carry out a verification exercise to determine exactly what happened, where it happened and then they issued a report and that is sent to both countries. So both of those things have been done. You know and again we absolutely of course state very clearly that our sovereignty and territorial integrity over a part of the Sarstoon River that is absolutely clear. The median line of the Sarstoon River is long established as a point between Belize and Guatemala so anything north of that median line is Belizean waters. So you know that’s our very clear position.”

Fonseca added that he has maintained that all Belizeans are free to visit the Sarstoon River.