P.U.P. Calls for Urgent Action by G.O.B. to Assert Sovereignty

Based on the incident in the Sarstoon last Friday, today the People’s United Party issued a very strong release demanding that the government, “Act to re-establish full sovereignty and control over the Belizean internal waters of the Sarstoon River and Sarstoon Island.” The release called the interception of Belizean media in the Sarstoon illegal a blatant violation of Belizean sovereignty. Late this evening, the Opposition representative Senator Eamon Courtenay, on the Belize team holding talks with Guatemala told News Five that the actions of that country continue to be nothing less than an illegal annexation of the Sarstoon.

Eamon Courtenay

Senator Eamon Courtenay, Opposition Representative, Belize Delegation

“I am disappointed that the Guatemalan forces felt that they were able to assert sovereignty and to assert the right to stop anybody from traveling into the Sarstoon. Based on what occurred in Istanbul, I think it was a matter of wait and see from my perspective to say whether Guatemala was in fact going to allow, at least in an informal way whilst we agree to negotiate and actually negotiate a formal arrangement that would apply to the Sarstoon. It seems to me that Guatemala would have allowed the free access to the Sarstoon. The fact that they were stopped, the fact that the media has stop shows to me that the situation on the ground had not changed. I alluded to this last week, I had expressed my hope that Guatemalan government and the Guatemalan forces would have acted in such a way that would have reflected the understanding if not the spirit of what happened in Istanbul, but as I had telegraphed last week, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. What has happened has happened and it has once again highlighted, so far as the P.U.P. is concerned, two things: the need for an urgent and structured approach to this problem by Belize. And I say Belize because I mean by that the government, the opposition and any other relevant social partner. And secondly, it requires our people to understand that this is a matter that is extremely serious and it requires all parties to come together to have a singularity of purpose. This is not a time for politics. We have to accept that the Sarstoon remains illegally and unlawfully under the control of Guatemala and we need to resolve that as a matter of urgency.”