P.U.P. Cancels Planned Weekend Sarstoon Trip

While those talks were supposed to be happening on Saturday, the P.U.P. had planned a trip to the Sarstoon. They claimed that it was an educational trip as opposed to a political trip, though the intent to send dual messages of protest to the Belize and Guatemala governments was clear. The trip never materialized, and we’ll bring you an official explanation from P.U.P. Deputy Leader Cordel Hyde in a few – but our team happened to be in P.G. and can confirm to you tonight that the authorities were waiting for them. According to Port Authority Training Officer Edmond Staine they were there to keep the P.U.P. safe, even if it meant keeping them on firm ground.

Edmond Staine, Assistant Prosecutor/Training Officer, Belize Port Authority

“I’ve heard on the news that the P.U.P. wanted to go and take a trip on the Sarstoon, but as it is, my mandate was not to come and stop that. But in fact, if the P.U.P. had decided to take a trip from Punta Gorda to Sarstoon then of course our mandate as it is safety and security; to ensure that all the Belizeans, especially executives because they are very important people within our entire parliamentary system and so on. So we have to make sure that those executives are well taken care of and that they are safe. And that’s why we are here to make sure that the vessels that they want to go in have all the safety equipment as approved by the harbor master.”

Duane Moody

“So essentially to avert that trek.”

Edmond Staine

Edmond Staine

“Well I mean the thing is we want to make sure that people are safe and that’s why we are here. So if the P.U.P. came down in their vessel and they wanted to leave or whatever, as long as that vessel was fully seaworthy, it would have been allowed to leave.”

Duane Moody

“We understand that you guys have intercepted several boats since the start of the morning.”

Edmond Staine

“Yes, we have. We found some vessels to be severely unseaworthy being out at sea. So we had to give them some prohibition of sailing notices and inform them that in fact they could not use their vessels until they have rectified all the factors of un-seaworthiness that we found onboard their vessels. So at this point we are out there, intercepting all the vessels that take off and informing them that we are conducting routine safety checks and just to ensure that everybody feels safe.”