Mapping the Guatemalan Claim: A News Five Flashback

Next Tuesday at eight p.m., Channel Five will be launching “Mapping the Guatemalan Claim: a News Five Flashback.”  The series will run through to the April tenth referendum and is part of our coverage of this historic event. As Belize prepares for the referendum, Channel Five is producing a limited season retrospective of our news coverage from 1991 to 2019. We’ll go back into our archives to map the history of the Guatemalan claim as reported by our news teams. The show will cover all the historical moments from the repeated border conflicts, the unfolding of the facilitation process, the establishment of the confidence-building measures and the adjacency zone and from the signing of the Compromis to the upcoming referendum.  To give our viewers a flashback, on February twenty-fifth, 2000, a group of four lawmen were kidnapped within Belizean territory. At the time, the Guatemalan military told the B.D.F. soldiers that they were inside Guatemalan territory. Their weapons were taken and they were transported to the Guatemalan side.  Stewart Krohn and Janelle Chanona were allowed to interview the three B.D.F. soldiers and one police constable. The incident sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity by the Belize government at the time. Tonight, nineteen years later, we revisit that story.  The kidnapping of the men is well documented in our archives from where we draw this and many other stories.

[Feature on Belizean Lawmen Taken by Guatemalan Military…]

“Mapping the Guatemalan Claim: A News Five Flashback” airs on Tuesday nights, beginning March fifth.