Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington confirmed that the existence of the diplomatic note of protest, but the biggest worry on his mind was the possibility that with the heightened emotions on the Sarstoon, there could have been an escalation of tensions between the military on both sides. In this context we note that Guatemala is beset with huge domestic struggles, and their President Jimmy Morales would seem to be only too eager for a distraction.
But, back to Elrington. Whenever he has discussed any of the past confrontations between the Guatemalan military and the Belize Territorial Volunteers, has has always been very slow to cast any blame on the Guatemalans. Today, though, the Foreign Minister strongly asserted that the Guatemalans were "clearly wrong":
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"We send protest note routinely. As a matter of fact in the case of this one, we did not only send the protest note, but we are also in close contact with the opposition on it, because clearly the Guatemalans were wrong to do what they did. There is no doubt about that. They were wrong. But 2 wrongs don't make a right and in that round that they did, unless you are very careful, you spark a situation that you can't control. It's not that we don't know that what they are doing from time to time is wrong, we know. But you have to manage crisis, because it can always get worse."
"Would you have wanted the BDF or the Coast Guard personnel to have entered into conflict with the Guatemalans? Would you have wanted to see military action between the 2 of them? Is that what you would have wanted? Is it your view that that was beyond contemplation or beyond that possibility? No. You know and I know that is a very volatile situation."
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