Work on Sarstoon Protocol drags; no confrontation at border

The June 2016 meeting in Washington discussed the heavy presence of the Guatemalan Military in the Sarstoon. At the time Guatemala committed to the Sarstoon Protocol to ease tensions since the military was preventing the free flow of travel by Belizeans up the southernmost river. Despite several rounds of diplomatic meetings, the rules that will govern travel within the remote location remain unfinished and were to have been concluded last December.  Foreign Minister Sedi Elrington admits that it’s a work in progress, though long overdue.  According to Elrington, what is most important is that there hasn’t been any incidents at the southern border of late.

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Wilfred Elrington

“We had general discussion on a whole range of issues but things like that are what I’d like to think of as matters that we are working on continuously.  We don’t have any definitive position on it yet but we continue to work on it.  The good thing is, the very good thing is that we have no incidents down there and that is essentially what we want.  And let me just interject something here.  Whereas we will be able, with the political will and the commitment and the maturity to be able to take a decision on how we can solve the claim, it will never lie within our power for us to change the geography.  So that Belize and Guatemala will live together in perpetuity.”