Guatemalan Navy Exits Belizean Waters After Heated Exchange

This morning around eight-thirty, coast guard personnel at the Hunting Caye outpost spotted a Guatemalan naval vessel in Belizean waters near Ragged Caye, about three miles south of Hunting Caye. Commandant of the Belize Coast Guard, Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, reported that there was an exchange of words between the personnel on the boat and Belizean patrol. After about twenty minutes, the Guatemalan vessel departed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has issued a press release stating that it will strongly protest this illegal incursion by the Guatemalan patrol boat. The ministry is calling on Guatemalan authorities to prevent their armed forces from entering Belizean waters without authorization. They also emphasized that they would continue to engage in dialogue with their Guatemalan counterparts to ensure that Belize’s maritime and territorial integrity, as well as its internationally recognized borders, are respected. Rear Admiral Bennett noted that the Guatemalans claimed they were in their own waters. Unlike previous incidents, the vessel did not run aground on the reef, and no weapons were drawn. Bennett described the encounter as non-aggressive.

 

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard

“There was a vessel that appeared to be a hydrography vessel that belonged to the Guatemalan Navy, 65 feet in length, and were patrolled then inform them that they were inside Belizean waters. It was an exchange of words at that location.  And eventually the Guatemalan patrol vessel, um, departed. We escorted that vessel outside of Belizean waters from here the Ministry of Defense will then inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who would then take lead in following up with a protest note. We believe that and the diplomatic channels would now kick in and that’s the route that we will rely on from now on to confirm exactly what occurred. It wasn’t an aggressive encounter, um, despite that they were inside Belizean waters. There were no weapons drawn, and it was not a grounding.”

 

Marion Ali

“You said it was an exchange, what did they have to tell us?”

 

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett

“They reported that they were patrolling Guatemalan waters, and we informed them that this is Belizean waters and eventually they left.”