Ministry Says Sarstoon Trip Is Not to Sway Voter Opinion

The scheduled trips are coincidentally or deliberately planned very close to the 2019 I.C.J. referendum which is just about five months away. The presence of the GAF at the Sarstoon has become a prickly issue.  So, are the excursions organized in a manner to purposely sway the minds of Belizean voters going into the referendum?  That’s what we asked C.E.O. Lovell today.  Here is his response.

Isani Cayetano

“The government, by extension, has expressed that this is nothing to do with the move towards the referendum on the I.C.J. matter next year, but how do you separate the two, because at the end of the day, when you look at it, the Sarstoon area is a contentious area and perhaps the solution to that lies within the whole referendum and the I.C.J. move.  So how do you divorce the two things?”

On the Phone: (Ret) Col. George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security

“Well it’s not a matter of divorcing them, I tend to look at it differently.  We need to ensure that while our people are going about their business of deciding about the I.C.J., that there is an element of awareness throughout the entire spectrum of our understanding about our history and how we intend to vote.  There must be an awareness, but this is outside of that.  This is an opportunity, we believe, that lends itself now for all our people, all our people who really had a desire to go down the Sarstoon and who really had a key interest in knowing how the ground and the area lends itself to go there now and have a firsthand experience at that.  And so while it is two different things, the excursion and the fact that we are going into the referendum for the I.C.J., I can tell you that it is not done to sway anyone’s mind, but rather for them to be aware.”