Did B.T.V. Trek Change Status Quo of Military Encounters in Sarstoon?
David Jones
Apart from accusing the BTV of endangering the lives of his soldiers, Brigadier General Jones goes further to blame them for the aggression of Guatemalan soldiers at the Sarstoon, claiming that they are changing the status quo of military encounters. That point, De la Fuente does not accept.
Brig. Gen. David Jones, Commander, Belize Defence Force [File: August 19, 2015]
“But of recent because of the traction of what is happening with the Territorial Volunteers wanting to go to the Sarstoon Island and wanting to show their patriotism in the area, they have escalated their interest in what’s happening at the Sarstoon. I must add that this can change the status quo of the relationship that we have military to military because we have been going through that river unimpeded for decades without incident. And for the first time we had the interception is after the Territorial Volunteers is showing their patriotism in the area. That’s the first time that we’ve had any interception of this sort that could have resulted in an incident.”
Giovanni de la Fuente
Giovanni de la Fuente, Head, Northern Territorial Volunteers
“As far as I know, the B.D.F. has been intercepted many times before, and so I don’t think that it’s a cause of our movement in that area that their aggression has stepped up. It seems to be that they have over many years been aggressing Belize.”
Ali and his forty thieves abandoned their responsibility of keeping BTV in compliance with Belizean and international law.
They were given plenty of time to manage the problem by policing this event, and arresting BTV members if they provoked the Guatemalans in a criminal manner.
BDF has become irrelevant: a pawn, a UDP lapdog with a Gibnut Bark. Just like the rest of the GOB ministries.
First of all, the BDF were having problems in the area way before the Territorial Volunteers as evidenced by SATUN, the Guat Navy Boat stuck on the reef (the same used against us on Sunday) and the PM admitting that is was an ongoing problem in his prior press conference. The Coast Guard indicated to us in Barranco that they never go there, only the BDF because they are armed and there is always problems.
I would like to remind Brigadier General Jones that it is the civilian tax payers who pay his salary to defend us and our country. They have abdicated that responsibility even though they are getting paid for it and so it was left to the volunteers to do their job. We the volunteers had to pay again by paying our own way to go do the work that that the BDF is tasked to do-protect the civilians and our territorial intergrity. I am sure there are many men and women in the BDF who would have been glad to do their part in protecting our nation except that their handlers in this case were misguided and prohibited them from doing so.
Further, the Pm seems to care about the increase risk to the BDF and military but never once has he indicated that he cares about the risks to the other citizens of this nation as a whole. He does not seem to care about what happens to the regular civilians. I did not hear, I’m sorry for what you had to experience nor did I hear we will attempt to protect you when you go to problematic border points.