B.D.F. to Build Base on North Bank of Sarstoon River

Francis Fonseca

The Sarstoon – actually the wider picture of Belize’s sovereignty – has been a hot-button issue in past months. Relations between Guatemala and Belize are not at the best point due to several incidents on the Sarstoon.  There is the detention of Belizeans by Guatemalans in Belizean territory and also tense encounters between the military of both countries. The Belize Territorial Volunteers have been a huge factor in the new scrutiny on the Sarstoon, and merited mention in both Independence Day addresses – albeit cast in different roles.

Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition

“This spirit of unity and sense of purpose was on full display for all the world to see just a month ago on August sixteenth when a group of some two hundred Belizeans under the banner of the Belize Territorial Volunteers gathered in Barranco, Toledo and journeyed to the Southernmost boundary of Belize on the Sarstoon. This journey was a peaceful, powerful statement that Belize, all of Belize, from Rio Hondo to Sarstoon, from our cays and atolls to our Western Border is ours to protect and defend.”

Dean Barrow

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“The B.D.F. will also build the forward operating base on the North Bank of the Sarstoon River as it continues to assert and exercise Belizean sovereignty in that area. This is a sovereignty that Government and all our security forces, as a matter of first principle and existential duty, will always wholly maintain. But we do not need civilians, however well-intentioned, to complicate matters. In flashpoint situations, preservation of the sovereignty and security equation must be left to our trained, professional, and highly skilled military; a military that has time and again demonstrated its ability to take care of business and perform at a level out of all proportion to its small size.”