Sedi Urges for Peace and Harmony Amid Anti-Guatemalan Sentiments

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington

Since the murder of Special Constable Danny Conorquie, and the ensuing hostilities between B.D.F. personnel and residents from the border community of San Valentin, there have been strong public sentiments against Guatemala, the age-old territorial dispute and Belize’s national security.  A majority of those views have been expressed openly across the airwaves. Recently, it came to light that a Guatemalan company had been contracted by the United States to build a forward operating base for the Belize National Coast Guard on Hunting Caye.  That revelation set off a firestorm of criticisms, ultimately resulting in a stop order to halt construction on the project forthwith.  Indeed, there have been many questions asked in the wake of the Hunting Caye fiasco and the overall feeling is that Belizeans want nothing to do with our neighbors to the west.  Today, we asked Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington to share his thoughts on the anti-Guatemala sentiments.  Here’s what he had to say.

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“I think it’s largely because the people who capture the media are people whom, to a large extent, are not aware of how these things are managed in other countries.  For example, you have the case where China is claiming Taiwan  but Taiwan is the biggest investor in China, biggest investor.  And China also invests in Taiwan, so that you have Chinese citizens going to Taiwan and being allowed to work there to construct buildings, to set up their businesses and you have Taiwanese who predominate in China in doing business.  You have India and Pakistan.  You have Indian business people going across to Pakistan and doing business there.  You have people from Pakistan going across to India and doing business there.  But I’ll tell you even more importantly in our own region, only yesterday I was talking to a new Costa Rican ambassador and he says that there’s a project in Costa Rica, between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the neighboring country, they also have border conflicts just like us, where they put into place a program a few years ago to cause these people to work together, says now is the most successful and most harmonious relationship between those people.  He says the people they have joint nationality.  The ones who are in Costa Rica also have Nicaraguan nationality, those in Nicaragua also have Costa Rican nationality.  They intermarry, they do business and they live harmoniously.  That is not the message that is being put out to the Belizean people in the media.  I will tell you also something significant, during my watch in government, the only time I’ve been in government, we have had four Guatemalans at least who have been killed with contact with our B.D.F., but not once did anybody from Guatemala go and attack the Belizean embassy in Guatemala.  No.  They understand that these things are going to happen and nobody in Guatemala are riling them up to go and do that.  But I get the impression that here in Belize there are people who are riling up the population.”

We will have more from our one-on-one with Elrington, including the outcome of the Joint Belize-Guatemala Commission meeting, later in the newscast.