_{Photo: GAF boat crashing into Belize’s boat}

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Sept. 5, 2024

The Belize Territorial Volunteers (BTV), led by activist Wil Maheia, are urging the Government of Belize (GoB) to act in response to a violation of Belize’s territorial sovereignty on Saturday, August 30, by the Guatemalan Armed Forces (GAF), which launched an unprovoked assault on a vessel carrying Belizean nationals along the Belize side of the Sarstoon River.

“This blatant act of aggression and intimidation against unarmed Belizeans is an alarming escalation that cannot be ignored,” said the BTV release.

Over the weekend, the BTV conducted their annual trip to the Sarstoon as an expression of patriotism and assertion of sovereignty during the September celebrations, and near the end of the voyage, they were approached by soldiers of the GAF, one of whom allegedly threatened to shoot the BTV’s boat engine.

“By the time we finished circling the island, the Guatemalan armed forces came out of nowhere, like mad boats coming straight to our boat. They started acting aggressively and told us that the entire river belonged to them, and that we needed to get out of the river,” said Maheia.

“We kept saying, ‘No! Part of the river belongs to Belize’. At this time, we were not even close to the Sarstoon Island. We were on the banks of the Sarstoon River itself, and then he started acting aggressively. He told his captain to reverse their boat and to slam into our boat with full speed … crash into our boat at full speed. He also told us … he said he could shoot our engines. It was totally out of order,” he added.

Maheia noted that women and children were onboard the Belize vessel, and the GAF approached them and began to ram into their boats.

“This fact that they did not care that women [and children] were on board. They rammed our boat; and they didn’t ram it just once, they rammed it three times; and we realized that, you know what? … in the interest of the safety of the people on board, then we backed off and returned to the Forward Operating Base at Sarstoon,” he said.

Three boats carrying 53 Belizeans had gone on the expedition.

Just last week, the Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. John Briceño, made a trip to Guatemala to meet with the country’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, and on his return he told Belizean reporters, “We addressed many issues, including the issue of trade, border, the Sarstoon, and how we can continue to work closer between both countries.”

In the aftermath of the BTV’s harrowing weekend experience with the GAF, Maheia expressed the opinion that Belize should cut economic ties with Guatemala to send a message.

“The trade imbalance between Belize and Guatemala is huge, so I think we should cut them out so that they could get the sense that we are helping their economy. They’re not necessarily helping our economy as much as we are helping their economy. The number of students that come from Melchor into Belize every day to school. We need Belizeans to get serious about this. We need the government to get serious about this,” he outlined.

Maheia noted that the BTV is not going to retaliate against GAF, but said instead we should use the “Gandhi approach”.

“We will not even think of fighting against a heavily backed Guatemalan military, so that is definitely out of the question. But at the same time, we cannot give in and allow them to take over our country. We see where the Guatemalans have taken over the Chiquibul [National Park] … almost five miles, five square miles of Chiquibul has been deforested and is now occupied by Guatemalans. Where are the environmental NGOs who should be replanting that area? Where is the government of Belize? The Guatemalans can just come in and do as they please in our country? No, we need to take a stand!” he said.

Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs gave his input on the aggressive behavior towards the BTV by the GAF, and explained that we can’t be too emotional about the situation.

“These are ongoing issues that you already know. When these incidents occur, two things happen. One, the Government of Belize, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, registers a strong diplomatic protest note, which is sent to the government of Guatemala, condemning the actions of the Guatemalan armed forces, as well as, of course, affirming, reaffirming Belize’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We report the incident to the Organization of American States. This is a part of an agreement that we have between Belize, Guatemala, and the OAS, that we report these types of incidents. The OAS then acts as a mediator. They carry out a verification exercise to determine exactly what happened, and where it happened, then they issue a report that is sent to both countries … our sovereignty and territorial integrity over a part of the Sarstoon River, that is clear. The median line of the Sarstoon River is long established as a point between Belize and Guatemala, so anything north of that line is Belizean waters,” he said. “We can’t be emotional and irrational about these incidents; that’s why we’ve worked hard over many years of successive governments to put in place a formal structure for responding to these incidents, for dealing with these incidents, which I’ve just outlined for you. So, our responsibility and duty is to make sure that we do those things, and that’s what we’ve done,” Minister Fonseca mentioned.