PUP Fires Off Stern Release on Guatemala’s Sarstoon Island Claim

The People’s United Party weighed into the debate today with a very strongly worded release and position. It made reference to an assertion by Guatemala’s Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales to the Guatemalan media on Saturday that all of the Sarstoon belongs to Guatemala. The P.U.P. stated that it (quote) categorically rejects the specious claim by Foreign Minister Morales and strongly condemns the provocative and illegal act by the Guatemalan navy (unquote). Former Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay has been appointed a member of the P.U.P.’s Belize/Guatemala Advisory Committee, and told News Five today that the Party is prepared to join a national effort to assert our sovereignty beyond question.

Eamon Courtenay, Member, Belize/Guatemala Advisory Committee

Eamon Courtenay

“It seems to us based on what we have been made to understand that Guatemalan naval vessels were in Belizean territorial waters, which constitutes a grave violation of our national sovereignty. Secondly, for Belizeans not to be allowed to go into the Sarstoon River on our side of the border is again a direct attack on our territorial integrity and a violation of International Law. So we in the very strongest terms condemn the actions by the Guatemalan military, the Guatemalan navy and we call on the government to take appropriate actions.

We have called on our Ambassador to be recalled from Guatemala for consultations which is a very clear signal to the Guatemalans that we find this to be a very grave infraction. We also believe that it is important that a meeting be held at the Ministerial level at the Organization of American States in order to reduce tensions. Obviously the objective will be to have confidence building measures that would be applicable at the Sarstoon in order to avoid any incident like this in the future. That meeting would have to be premised on the respect of Guatemala for Belize’s borders and there should be absolutely no mistake about that. We believe that the government needs to underline in the very clearest possible terms and very strongest way our national sovereignty, our territorial integrity and to make known not only to Guatemala but to our friends that Guatemala has recently adopted a course that is designed to provoke an international incident. It is clear to us based on what we understand from the Belize Defence Force that the Guatemalan military has now taken the position that the entire Sarstoon belongs to them and that they are going to stop the Belize Defence Force and any other Belizean from going in there. History is very clear that we have used the Sarstoon. We have used our side. There are international treaties and obligations of Guatemala which recognize where the border line is and now is not the time in 2016 for Guatemala to attempt to change that by military force. The government ought to take very strong action, very serious action and the People’s United Party has said in our release that we are prepared to join a national effort in this regard.”