Guatemalans Reject Belize’s Sarstoon Protocols

There is significant, though certainly not surprising information in respect of eleven proposals presented to Guatemala by Belize. News Five has received information indicating that Guatemala has responded to the eleven protocols on the Sarstoon presented to them just over a week ago. The news is that Guatemala has allegedly rejected those protocols outright, and has proposed that both countries instead just go back to maintaining the status quo. According to Guatemala, that status quo is that any Belizean vessel, whether civilian or military, must ask permission from GAF personnel stationed at the mouth of the Sarstoon before entering the river. Belize, at least officially, claims to have absolutely no knowledge of that protocol, and in fact has referred to it as a fabrication. For context, we revisit comments from Ambassador Assad Shoman last week in Belmopan where he dismissed the Guatemala status quo as idle talk.

Assad Shoman

Assad Shoman, Opposition Representative [File: April 12^th, 2016]

“The truth is that you know sometimes when you go into a negotiation, you don’t want to talk necessarily about things that would really only embarrass the other side because there are no such protocols. And so these are inventions of some people which have no legal basis. So if there is no need to go into that and ask them about it, then why do it. What we did was very clear; this is what we want, this is based on law and this is the kind of agreement that we want. And as we said, the reaction as not negative from the committee so we are hoping that they will agree to that and then we would not have to worry about this idle talk, I would say about protocols that just don’t exist.”