PM Briceño Upset, Says He was Misinterpreted

Prime Minister John Briceño

Prime Minister Briceño was also asked about the comment he made during an interview last week in relation to the Belize/Guatemala border dispute. As we reported, the PM said “we can’t invade Guatemala, as much as we would have liked to”. He has received a lot of backlash for this comment. But he says he was misinterpreted and he did not take too kindly to it.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“You guys you are amazing. I want to contain myself because the point I was making was that we need to be careful how we go into that area. We don’t want to antagonize the Guatemalan. We recognize that half of the Sarstoon belongs to us. But I am saying, what if, God forbids, if someone would get shot, someone becomes trigger happy and they shoot a Belizean citizen and the BDF are going to respond. They constantly stand in front of the Guatemalans. They do not allow themselves to be bullied and then there is a shootout. I know some people will say so what will we do, we cant leave ourselves. WE need to recognize that Guatemala is a country with about sixteen to eighteen million people. We are a population of four hundred thousand. Anybody who believes we can invade Guatemala is stupid and I am disappointed in you when you are going to put your caption that I am talking about invading Guatemala. That is a stupid statement that you all are making. My point that I am trying to make is that we need to use the diplomatic channels which is what we have been dong. The PUP government has been doing it since George Price days, the UDP has been doing it and we continue to do that because that is the only option we have. I hope I have made that abundantly clear.”