Saturday, April 27, 2024
What will it take for the government of Belize to be more aggressive in protecting our borders, both our waterways and land borders? How much more disrespect and aggression are acceptable? Are we, the Belizean people and government, so neutered that we will accept our highest ranking military officer being bitch-slapped by a bunch of illiterate Guatemalans? WTF is going on? The UDP government depopulated the Sarstoon while creating the Sarstoon Temash reserve in 1994—shame on them; and the PUP obviously have decided not to protect it, nor the Chiquibul, nor the Columbia reserve. This is not the first time these questions have been asked, by me, and by many other concerned citizens. We see the same scenario played out over and over with the same results.
Nothing can be done, even though these poachers, these criminals, obviously with the consent of the Guatemalan military, are deep inside the territory of Belize, relieving us of our most precious natural resources. This is Belize’s territory; but according to a gutless foreign policy, we need the OAS to intervene! On our own territory, we need some foreign entity to give us permission to defend our rights? And if they agree with us, then what? We will register protests against Guatemala, and then what? They will tell us to stick those protests “where the sun don’t shine”, and then what?
First of all, we need a foreign minister whose only portfolio is to make sure our borders are secure; to use whatever diplomatic means necessary to convey to Guatemala, the OAS, to the world, in no uncertain terms, that we are being invaded by the Guats, and that it is unacceptable! That should be his only portfolio. It has to be a priority, and not some incident that we pay lip service to whenever it appears in the news. These incursions—this blatant disregard of our territorial integrity—have to be addressed as the national security threat that they are.
The government can boast about all its accomplishments—more tourism in the country, a better GDP, higher minimum wage, and all the other positive aspects of their administration; but if we cannot protect our sovereignty, our citizens, all that is meaningless, in my opinion!
The only person who seems to give a damn about our sovereignty is Wil Maheia and his organization! He is the only one who confronts these pirates from the Guatemalan navy, pirates, because they are illegally in our waters. He does this constantly and at great risk, while our defence forces, our general, our government, tell us not to antagonize them. In other words, we should reward them for their brazenness? Maybe, Mr. Maheia should be made the Commander of our Armed Forces, or Defence Minister or Foreign Minister! He has more huevos, and exhibits more gravitas than all of them put together. I’m sure he would do a better job than what those in charge are doing right now! The blame for all this does not fall solely on the back of the current government, but the solution is theirs to find and implement.
I’m not advocating for us to go war. That would be suicide! What I’m saying is that the humiliation suffered by our chief defence officer last week should be taken seriously. We should definitely be more vociferous in our insistence, in our objections, to these incidents! We need to have a significant military presence in those areas threatened by this scourge! Not the maudlin utterances of an apparently neutered government!
Glen