New Guatemalan President, New Sarstoon Protocol?

With a new Guatemalan president and foreign minister in office, will there be a mutually agreed upon protocol to govern travel along the contested Sarstoon River?  Prime Minister John Briceño and Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca were both in Guatemala City a few weeks ago for the installation of President Bernardo Arevalo.  During their time in the capital city, Belize’s head of government and his foreign minister were able to briefly discuss the often tense situation at Belize’s southernmost tributary.  According to Minister Fonseca, he remains optimistic that a new Sarstoon Protocol will be hammered out in the months ahead.

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“I am very hopeful that we can do so.  We had an opportunity in Guatemala, a sort of coincidental byproduct of all the waiting that we had to do, was that the prime minister and I had the opportunity to spend time with the incoming president and the incoming foreign minister because for several hours, for example, we were all in one room waiting for the president to be sworn in.  So we had, and on previous occasions we also had an opportunity to speak with them.  So I think we had, you know, we are always very hopeful.  Belize stands ready, we believe that these are important issues.  As you all know, we are following the process through the ICJ, we respect that process, but Belize’s position is that we should not wait for the outcome of the ICJ to resolve some of these issues that are challenging us on the ground.  So the issue of Sarstoon, for example, and the issue of security on the ground, the issue of deforestation, of intrusions into our territory.  We believe that all of these are very important, urgent matters that require the attention of both governments.  So we expressed that view to the president and the foreign minister that we are prepared to discuss these matters and we hope, we are very hopeful that with this new administration that perhaps there can be a reset on these important issues and that in the next few weeks we can have an opportunity to perhaps engage with them and discuss them.”