Guatemalan Foreign Minister Says Crisis is not Over

Carlos Raul Morales

On Monday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow assured the nation that the crisis with Guatemala had been averted and that both he and President Jimmy Morales had agreed to de-escalate tensions following the deployment of troops to the Sarstoon and the Adjacency Zone.  In the interview to Canal Antigua, Morales claims that Guatemala did not deploy three thousand troops, but that in fact President Jimmy Morales had merely instructed a re-enforcement. Be that as it may, but Morales also stresses that the PM has it wrong, and that in fact, the crisis is not over:

Carlos Raul Morales, Foreign Minister, Guatemala

“This problem is very serious, we won’t with the passage of time to say ok, nothing happened and continue as if nothing ever happened.  The Prime Minister said either yesterday or today, that the situation with Guatemala was over. No, it is not over. This is a matter that hurts us; it was a child of thirteen years and we cannot tolerate it. We are asking the international community; yesterday, I had a conversation with the Deputy Secretary and asked that they get involved directly in conversation and for them to do training with the soldiers of Belize.  Exactly two months ago, I was with Deputy Secretary and precisely on the theme of the Sarstoon, I asked that they please become involved because there will be another incident. And exactly two months after, there is this incident and another fatality occurred.   I think this case has given us a lot of lessons. I think the Guatemalan diplomacy is very clear as to where we want to go.  If we know we want to resolve the territorial differendum, we cannot continue to be burying the dead, losing time. And we want to strengthen that relationship because to go to the International Court of Justice is the only one in the universe that can resolve this differendum and can put an end to the differendum. We know we have to strengthen the relations, but not at the cost of the Guatemalans.”