Guatemalans allege B.D.F. aggression
Relations between Belize and Guatemala have been simmering on the diplomatic back burner over the last few months, but the heat was turned up last week when a group of Guatemalan xate farmers attacked a Belizean patrol unit inside the Chiquibul Forest Reserve. The joint B.D.F./Police patrol took one of the Guatemalans into custody. The incident sparked protest from Guatemalan Foreign Minister Jorge Briz, who fired off a diplomatic note to Belmopan accusing Belizean officials of violating the confidence building measures for the Adjacency Zone. A report in the leading Guatemalan daily newspaper Prensa Libre today quotes Briz as saying the incident on Wednesday amounted to aggression on the part of the POLICE/police unit and paints their response with firepower as an unjustifiable act brought on by “a spirit of xenophobia.” The Prensa Libre report carried the picture of a man identified as Lorenzo Espino Ramirez, who claims he was shot by B.D.F. soldiers. Espino is currently hospitalised in Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala. Foreign Affairs Minister Godfrey Smith confirmed to News 5 he has received a diplomatic note regarding the incident from his Guatemalan counterpart Jorge Briz. Smith says he responded by stressing that this is not the first time Belizean law enforcement officials had been fired upon by Guatemalans coming across the border illegally. Smith says that the official positionof the Belize government is that “in no uncertain terms, the incident occurred seventeen kilometres within Belizean territory.” This would corroborate the patrol unit’s report which claims that they were fired from the bushes in the area of Las Cuevas. As to the Guatemalan allegation that Espino was shot by Belizean authorities, Smith says he is not aware of this and is not in a position to say whether or not the hospitalised farmer was wounded during the incident. The man detained by Belizean police has been identified as Juventino Saldivar. Smith says Saldivar now faces a battery of charges, including attempted murder, aggravated assault, illegal entry, illegal extraction of forest products, and the possession of illegal firearm and ammunition. An official statement from Belmopan, posted on the Government website ends by saying that G.O.B. categorically rejects the false accusations against the Belize Defence Force and that the Government of Belize welcomes an investigation by the Organization of American States to ascertain the facts. This latest incident will no doubt feature prominently in an upcoming ministerial meeting between Smith and Briz at the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington on May fourth, at which time the confidence building measures will be reviewed.
