More on Belize/Guatemala Dispute and Sarstoon Island

Dean Barrow

Already escalating anti-Guatemalan sentiment was fuelled by a news report of the incident released by a Guatemalan reporter with Canal Antigua. That reporter conducted an interview with Vice-Commander Thomas, the senior Guatemalan naval officer on the scene – in fact, the one who ordered the Belizean vessels to turn back. Thomas asserts that everybody knows that the Sarstoon, the entire River including the island, is the property of Guatemala.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“His view that he was protecting the Sarstoon River is no doubt a view that he honestly holds. We insist that the midpoint of the navigable channel of that river constitutes a boundary between Belize and Guatemala. So we do not accept that when they come over to our side of that navigable channel, they are protecting Guatemala. We say rather they are committing a violation of Belize’s territorial integrity.”