Guatemala has strong words for Belize

Wilfred Elrington

Belize’s Foreign Ministry is preparing to receive the vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Carlos Raul Morales Moscoso, who is scheduled to head a delegation to a meeting with his Belizean counterparts over the weekend which coincides with the date of the aborted referendum. But late on Wednesday, Guatemala protested parts of a statement made at the UN General Assembly by the Foreign Minister, Wilfred Elrington. Elrington complained to the international community that Guatemala had decided not to proceed with the sixth of October 2013 referendum and that this has created anxiety for Belizeans and investors. Elrington also complained that our territorial and maritime border regions have been “suffering from depredation and environmental degradation in consequences of the wanton and sustained illegal activities of Guatemalan campecinos, fishermen and other criminal elements engaged in narco-trafficking, human-trafficking, smuggling, illegal panning of gold, the extraction of xate and other exotic plants and animals, the illegal felling of timber and the pillaging of our Mayan ruins.” Elrington also said that there have been increased incursions into our country which have given rise to frequent violent encounters between Guatemalans and members of the Belize Defense Force. Well that statement has elicited a strong reaction from Guatemala which has issued a nine-point statement rejecting what it calls the disrespect of Belize’s Foreign Minister towards their laborers, fishermen and citizens. But Guatemala goes further saying that Elrington alluded to the fact that the border conflicts are dangerous. Guatemala, says the statement, wants to remind the government of Belize and the international community that Guatemala does not have a “territorial differendum with Belize because there are no borders between Belize and Guatemala.”