Home » Featured Foreign Affairs Miscellaneous People & Places Regional / International
You are currently browsing entries filed in: Featured Foreign Affairs Miscellaneous People & Places Regional / International
While Guatemalan officials have not hesitated at any point to name and shame Belize, those very same Guatemalan officials have bristled whenever Belizean officials question the actions of their government. From Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales’ response to Vega in Cuba, it is clear that they were caught off guard. But did the comments create more […]
On May twenty-seventh, just days after the Istanbul talks and word of an informal agreement allowing untrammeled access to the Sarstoon, Guatemalan Armed Forces refused to allow access to News Five. But more than that, Guatemalan officials informed Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they were unhappy with G.O.B.’s release mentioning that so-called informal understanding. […]
The media was stopped by the GAF, but an expedition of P.U.P. parliamentarians and executive members who made the trip exactly one week after were not. In fact, that expedition was able to circle Sarstoon Island with not a peep from the Guatemalan military. Peace reigns in the Sarstoon, right? Well, no. What happened is […]
On May twelfth, Belizeans Roger Plett and Rudy Friesen were taken off Belizean soil on a farm they worked in an area known as Green Hills which adjoins the Guatemalan border. Both men were taken across the border, Plett tied up and threatened, their tractor and bulldozer also taken across. Plett’s tractor was badly damaged. […]
We note that in our last conversation with the Ministry of National Security C.E.O. George Lovell, he said that police investigations confirmed Plett’s story. Lovell explained that it was in the hands of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who would deal with it through the O.A.S. and their Guatemalan counterparts. We think it’s safe to […]
So back to the Sarstoon. One of the major criticisms in that area has been that Guatemalan fisherfolk have been allowed to fish freely in Belizean waters, at times travelling as far as Barranco setting illegal gill nets. It’s a situation we’ve seen firsthand, and it hasn’t changed even with the addition of the Forward […]
This weekend, Cuba was the venue for the Association of Caribbean States’ seventh Summit of Heads of State and Government. Belize was represented by Gaspar Vega in his last official undertaking as Deputy Prime Minister, accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington. The Summit is designed to forge stronger ties between the participating countries […]
Guatemala was also represented at the seventh Summit in Cuba, by President Jimmy Morales and Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales. Not surprisingly, the president didn’t take kindly to the address by Vega soliciting the support of the ACS and asked permission to respond specifically to Vega’s comments. Jimmy Morales, President, Guatemala “Thank you very […]
Prensa Libre T.V. has been airing an amateur video in which it claims that Belizean police and border management personnel are intimidating Guatemalans from Melchor de Mencos along the Adjacency Zone on the western border. The incident is said to have happened recently when the Belizean officials approached the Guatemalans who were in that area […]
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wilfred Elrington attended the eight summit of the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Heads of State and Governments. The summit concluded today in Papua New Guinea with the adoption of a declaration which included language on Belize. It reads in part: “We strongly reaffirm unequivocal support for Belize’s sovereignty and territorial integrity […]
On Friday News Five was stopped by Guatemalan military as we tried to enter the Sarstoon. They claimed that we were in their national waters. That claim is nothing new, but it is distressing because just days before Belize and Guatemala had allegedly come to an informal understanding that Belizeans would be allowed untrammeled access […]
While John Saldivar has been in the news of late mostly in reference to his bid for U.D.P. Deputy Leader, he is the Minister of National Security and border security features prominently in his portfolio. So when we had the opportunity we asked him about the incident on Friday in the Sarstoon, and also about […]
Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington is not expected to return to Belize until after the meeting in Habana of the Association of Caribbean States on June sixth. The Minister is racking up miles on an extended tour which has taken him to Taiwan, Turkey, Papau New Guinea and then Cuba which is the last leg of […]
Written on May 31, 2016 | Posted in
Foreign Affairs |
Comments
In our newscast on Friday we reported that eight fishermen had been detained and were being processed by immigration authorities in Guatemala. The group was detained on the beach of Punta Manbique for illegal entry. Seven had fishing licences, but the eight fishermen did not hold any identification document. The fishermen are Jeffery Gongora, Manuel Flores, […]
Guatemala has issued a formal letter of protest to Belize with reference to a trip to the Sarstoon last Friday. Tonight, we can say that Guatemalan Ambassador to Belize Manuel Roldan has outrightly disputed our version of events. Just for some clarity, on Friday morning News Five attempted to go down the Northern Channel of […]
Based on the incident in the Sarstoon last Friday, today the People’s United Party issued a very strong release demanding that the government, “Act to re-establish full sovereignty and control over the Belizean internal waters of the Sarstoon River and Sarstoon Island.” The release called the interception of Belizean media in the Sarstoon illegal a […]
There continues to be much reference to what was referred to in a government release last Tuesday as an informal acceptance of a situation in which, “there will be untrammeled traffic for Belize’s military and civilians along the Sarstoon.” The wording is a little ambiguous, and since Courtenay was in Istanbul when this so-called agreement […]
You’ll notice that while Guatemala did not reject the assertion by Minister Elrington, they didn’t accept it either, so therein may lie the confusion. As was stated by Prime Minister Dean Barrow on Friday, there are also frequent claims by Guatemala that decisions made in these high-level meetings do not always reach the Sarstoon. Courtenay […]
The P.U.P. release issued today also specifically issues a call for the appointment of a, “national team to competently manage Belize/Guatemala.” So is the P.U.P. saying that the current team is not competent? We asked Courtenay since he is speaking for the P.U.P., but is also a member of the current team in negotiations with […]
At the political level, there is tension between Belize and Guatemala as relations deteriorate over Guatemala’s assertion that it owns the Sarstoon. But over the weekend, you would not have known that. Evangelical pastors from Belize and Guatemala converged at the border to pray for peace; it all happened in front of the O.A.S. Office […]
Tonight, the uncertainty surrounding that volatile zone known as the Sarstoon is alive and well after Guatemalan Armed Forces denied a News Five team passage down the river this morning, claiming that we were trespassing in their national waters. If it had happened last week, as it has on multiple occasions in past months, it […]
Even as our team headed back to Belize City, deterred from entering the Sarstoon but having made the point that Guatemala isn’t playing on the same checkerboard, Prime Minister Dean Barrow weighed in on the incident with extreme prejudice. Apparently he had been briefed by C.E.O. in the Ministry of National Security George Lovell, likely […]
A release issued by government on Tuesday, announcing the revocation of the Sarstoon Prohibition SI, stated that, “While the formal mechanism is being worked on, the two sides have informally accepted a situation in which there will be untrammeled traffic for Belize’s military and civilians along the Sarstoon.” So what exactly is an informal acceptance? […]
So with Belizean civilians still not able to enter the Sarstoon, what happens next? Will government perhaps seek to reinstitute the Sarstoon Law? On the Phone: Prime Minister Dean Barrow “Why would I do that? That S.I. was to serve the limited purpose of ensuring that at the time the circumstances that saw us […]
It’s clear what the real protocol is at the Sarstoon where civilians are concerned. Belizeans can’t go there. But what about the B.D.F.? We all saw footage of the Guatemalan navy turning back the B.D.F. a couple weeks ago as they attempted to go to Cadenas for a shift change-over. At that time, they were […]
