Audrey Matura Makes No Apology for Spitting on Guatemala National Flag

Audrey Matura

And so, according to Matura, what she experienced on her latest trip to Sarstoon Island was the precursor to her actions on Thursday evening at the Biltmore. She further contended that despite the encounter over the weekend, the Guatemalan Embassy in Belize was allowed to hold its event on Belizean territory as opposed to inside the embassy compound.

Audrey Matura, Activist

“When I was there that is when I found out that the Guatemalans are gonna hold an independence ceremony there and they were going to invite our politicians. I could not get more information than that. I saw the flag and everything. Several things to that for me, under international law if you have an embassy in any country, any country has an embassy anywhere, the embassy itself is like your territory of your country. Like the U.S. Embassy, the reason they treat us the way they do there and can put their rules and we comply is because that is their land in our land. It is international law. These are accords and conventions that governments since the first and Second World War agreed to bring about peace. Guatemala, unlike Mexico and the United States, decided to hold their ceremony not in their embassy, they came and held it on our land at the Biltmore, fine. The Biltmore getting paid, I don’t mind. But at that moment I saw there and said the audacity of these people, having disrespected us, having the audacity to say that our territory belonging to them, taking us to the ICJ. So when I saw the flag I went live and unlike what people say, oh I must have been drunk or whatever, no, very much in my sense, knowing that what I saw there for me amounted to disrespect. My live was clear what I had to say. The only thing I have to apologize for is my obscene language which gets the best of me when I am pissed off. It is good for people to know the law and know what is a crime and not a crime. In Belize the defilement of a Belizean flag is not a crime and there is such a crime in other countries, I know the U.S. and Argentina to name a few, but very few country, but it has to be defilement of your own flag. Defilement is when you damage it or whatever, it is not a crime in Belize. In Guatemala the defilement of their flag is not a crime. So if I spat on the flag, or kick the flag or burn the flag, it is not a crime.”