Ministry of National Security Leads Excursions Up Sarstoon River
Traversing the Sarstoon River has been a daring feat for any civilian wishing to visit the southernmost reaches of the country. That’s because the Guatemalan Armed Forces have kept a permanent presence near the estuary and forcefully continue to resist any Belizean vessel heading upstream. It is a similar challenge faced by other organizations, including the Belize Territorial Volunteers which has been leading the charge to visit the far-flung areas of Gracias A Dios. So when the Ministry of National Security announced on Tuesday that it is spearheading its own excursions upriver, it raised eyebrows, particularly since government had enacted a Statutory Instrument during the height of the Belize/Guatemala hostility, prohibiting Belizeans from venturing in that part of the country. The ministry says that planned trips to that remote location will be held ahead of the April 2019 referendum. News Five spoke with C.E.O. George Lovell.
On the Phone: (Ret) Col. George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security
“It is an initiative that the honorable Minister of National Security, Honorable John Saldivar came up with. He wants to, the purpose of the excursions is for us to afford our people an opportunity to have firsthand knowledge of the area around the Sarstoon and Gracias A Dios, so that whenever there is any conversation or activity that will occur there that our people will be well-informed and that they will know precisely what they are talking about in terms of the activities or incidents that may occur in that area. It is also for our people to be very much aware of how the terrain is situated down in the Sarstoon, especially the area of Gracias A Dios, the monument that we have there.”
Isani Cayetano
“It appears to be somewhat contradictory in a sense, simply because you would recall a few years ago that a statutory instrument was passed, effectively prohibiting Belizeans from traveling that area on their own free will and now the government is setting up excursions for a similar purpose. For instance, if you look at what the BTV has attempted to do to traverse the area of the Sarstoon on their own and they have been met with some form of objection, if I may, from law enforcement and the powers that be.”
On the Phone: (Ret) Col. George Lovell
“Isani, you would agree that the situation at the time when that SI was passed was one that we can argue that warrants that SI to be passed. The area, there was a volatile situation there where clearly there were confrontations from an armed opposition and we thought that at the time it would have been in our minds not a good idea for us to have our civilians going between both of our military forces as they try to come to the kind of amicable agreement to deal with our differences that we have along the Sarstoon. Having the civilians go in between that would have just made life extremely challenging for us and so we had to do what we did then.”
