P.U.P. Tells Government to Stop Appeasing ‘Brazen’ Guats

John Briceño

In diplomacy, ‘appeasement’ is a dirty word dating back to Neville Chamberlain and his accommodation of German dictator Adolf Hitler’s expansionist ideals, which led directly to the Second World War. It has been used before in relation to the current Government’s policy on Guatemala by opponents, and in the wake of the Guatemalan Armed Forces’ attempt to ‘mash up’ the Belize Territorial Volunteers’ Sarstoon Eco-Challenge race to and around Sarstoon Island, which they accomplished with no intervention from Belize’s joint operation base of the Belize Defence Force and Coast Guard. It is part and parcel, says Opposition Leader John Briceño, of the Government’s wishful thinking about Guatemala’s intentions.

John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader

“The Government believes that by appeasing Guatemala that they could get Guatemala to the negotiating table, and could get Guatemala to back off. And we see that appeasement does not work. We had a World War Two because of appeasement: trying to appease Hitler and Nazi Germany. And here today the government is constantly appeasing and appeasing the Guatemalans, and the Guatemalans are getting even more bolder and brazen in their claim to the entire Sarstoon. Half of the Sarstoon river coming north belongs to us, including Sarstoon Island, and these soldiers had absolutely no excuse, absolutely no reason to be there, but just to try to intimidate us and to make the point that they own that portion of the river.”