De la Fuente Says BTV Provoking Guatemalans is Absurd

Giovanni de la Fuente

De la Fuente says that where the trip to the Sarstoon is concerned, any aggression from the Guatemalans will be a result of the weakness of government’s position now and in the past. As to the suggestion from official quarters that the BTV is provoking Guatemalans, he says that’s just ridiculous, an assertion with no merit whatsoever.

Giovanni de la Fuente, Head, Northern Territorial Volunteers

“Due to the weak position of our government, they have further increased the danger level for Belizeans, especially in the Sarstoon. If we would have been assertive from the get go and if we would have been occupying these areas, it would have been safer. I will tell you that due to the weak responses that we have been having over the past ten, fifteen years from the government of Belize, Guatemala has become emboldened. And so Sarstoon area is practically controlled by the Guatemalans as we speak today.”

Mike Rudon

“The Foreign Minister has stated unequivocally that the aggravation is on the part of the territorial volunteers; that the territorial volunteers have gone into the Sarstoon and made the situation much worse?”

Giovanni de la Fuente

“Well let me tell you something, the Foreign Minister has been drinking from a vial and it has his personality. He is not in mesh with the Belizeans as we speak. From my point of view, he is in a different field. When he says that the volunteers have been causing this problem, he is sadly mistaken. This problem has been in existence before volunteers became established.”