TIDE Says Guatemalan Fishers Illegally Entering Belizean Waters  

Residents from a Guatemalan fishing community claim Belizean authorities are violating their human rights by preventing them from fishing in their waters. The Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE) has responded to these claims. Leonardo Chavarria, TIDE’s Executive Director, explained that the Sapodilla Caye Marine Reserve was recently expanded to over three hundred thousand acres to protect the newly discovered Caiman Crown Reef. While most of this reef is within Belize’s territory, part of it falls within Guatemalan waters. Chavarria noted that in 2020, Guatemalan authorities declared their portion a protected no-take zone. However, following the fishermen’s allegations, the Guatemalan government has reversed this declaration, leading the fishermen to believe they can fish beyond Guatemala’s marine border.

 

Leonardo Chavarria, Executive Director, TIDE

“What transpired recently is that there is a community which works very close to the Caiman Crown Area, about two miles. That community is entitled San Francisco Del Mar. If you notice, what they do is that they released a video in which they are expressing their dissatisfaction with the type of enforcement that Belize has in that area. In that video they are making a lot of allegations that are untrue. They are saying that we are violating their human rights, taking away their fishing gear and that we have been shooting live rounds and threatening their lives. None of that is true. The truth is these fishers have opened fire on Belizean law enforcement authorities, including the Belize Coast Guard and TIDE personnel. Gunfire was never exchanged with them. So, our authorities exercise restraint. However, the allegations of human rights are really pronounced in Guatemala that the ministry of natural resources and environment and the ministry responsible for protected area designation is issuing a press release in why they are saying that they are not in accordance with a recent bill proposed in the Guatemalan Congress to include Caiman Crown within the protected area. The impression portrayed out there to the Guatemalan communities is that it is a free for all and that status formally held in which the Caiman Crown area was a no take zone. The fishers can fish without real enforcement form Guatemalan NGOS. You will see more illicit fishing gears such a s gill nets, long lines, even in Belize. They are saying they have authority over six miles extending from the Caiman Crown area which brings them well into Belizean territory.”