“Sedi” Elrington Still Waiting for Guatemala to Agree on Sarstoon Protocol

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington

The Sarstoon Protocol; it’s been several months since the governments of Belize and Guatemala discussed formalizing a proposed set of guidelines that would govern access to the southernmost reach of the country.  The area has been under contention since 2015 when the Guatemalan Armed Forces ramped up its presence and control of the riverine access.  Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington has been in dialogue with its Guatemalan counterparts to ratify regulations concerning access to the remote location. Despite the recent encounter between a B.D.F. patrol and Guatemalan military, the agreements are yet to be signed by both countries.

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“Let me make it very clear because I don’t think we as a nation and as a people have been sufficiently aggressive in educating the Belizean public as to these issues. Whenever there are border disputes in any part of the world, from time to time, there is going to be some kind of conflict. That has happened between Trinidad and Barbados; that has happened between Guyana and Trinidad; it’s happened between Guyana and Suriname…they are neighbors. So incidents between two countries where there are border disputes happen all the time. There is nothing that is special about it and there is very little that anybody can do about it because people will use the waters and there are people who behave in different ways. The important thing is to be able to manage it so that nobody gets hurt and so that the relationship between the nations can remain amicable. I had heard very briefly that there was an incident; as a matter of fact, I think I was coming back on Saturday—both of us were abroad and we met in Miami—and I think he did mention briefly of an encounter and he said that it was dealt with immediately and very positively. All he has to do was to contact the general commanding the Guatemalan army. Just like in Belize, you have people in Guatemala who’d really want to see this matter spiral out of control. I don’t know why Belizeans would want to do that because the consequences could be very grave, but I get the sense that there are people who want to see that happen. Our job is to try to make sure that that never happens. It is never good for people to be in dispute—whether it is nation to nation or individual to individuals. The more we can avoid having disputes, the better it is for us. But thankfully, our general has an excellent relationship with the Guatemalan general and whatever transpired, he was able to deal with it very effectively. Nothing to be alarmed about; this happens every day all across the world in areas where there are border disputes.”