Coast Guard Clarifies Incident with Guatemalan Vessel

Earlier this week, there were reports of a Guatemalan gunboat running aground on the reef in southern waters, leading to a tense standoff with Belizean Coast Guardsmen. However, Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, Commandant of the Belize Coast Guard, quickly clarified that this wasn’t the case. He stated that it wasn’t a gunboat, no weapons were drawn, and once the coast guardsmen confirmed the vessel was in Belizean waters, it left peacefully. Today, Minister of Defense and Border Security, Florencio Marin Junior, reassured the public that the vessel near Ragged Caye in the Ranguana Caye range was not a gunboat. Marin expressed confidence in the Coast Guard’s ability to handle potentially volatile situations, both in the past and moving forward.

 

Florencio Marin Jr., Minister of Defense & Border Security

“ It wasn’t a gunboat. Although it was a geography vote, and, my thoughts on it, as I had mentioned in the speech that our sailors or seamen, whenever they see these tricks or their incursions in territorial, once they go out and they meet it and they diffuse it. So those are my thoughts and I promise you that as long as these, these things would occur our seamen will be there to diffuse the situation.”

 

Reporter

“How skilled are they in de-escalating, because we know if it escalates anymore, and anybody gets jumpy and triggers start pull, it will be bad for Belize.”

 

Florencio Marin Jr.

“I mean, I have all the people here for the seamen. I mean, under the leadership of Bennett  they’re professionally trained, you know, so they don’t go there in any aggressive manner. The opportunity will be affirmed if we advise them appropriately. Every time we manage to resolve it.”