Did G.O.B. Take Attempted Interception of Media in the Sarstoon Seriously?

Dean Barrow

The last time News Five went to the Sarstoon just prior to the Washington talks last week, we were chased out by a Guatemalan naval vessel with nine armed soldiers. Fortunately, their boat was slower, since it didn’t seem they were trying to hold on to us to offer cervezas and cookies. Government had issued a release following that attempted interception, claiming that if they verified that it was indeed true then it would certainly affect the tone of the talks in Washington. Nobody ever contacted us to verify anything, and according to Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington it never came up in the talks. So was there even a protest lodged over the incident?

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“I’m not sure what the Foreign Affairs Ministry did. I know I was told of the matter by C.E.O. Lovell and certainly Ambassador Rosado was tasked to raise this with the Guatemalans. Did we put out some kind of a statement locally? Right, I think that’s what we did and they responded to that by sending something to us claiming that it was because our people, yourself included, didn’t have life vests and they wanted to know why you were videoing their forward operating base. So the idea was simply to ask some questions. So that’s where that stood. Subsequently to that there was the meeting with the O.A.S. Secretary General and since then, thankfully, there’s not been any repeat of that stands on the part of Guatemala that sees them stopping people.”