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Another Sarstoon Confrontation, FM Urges Diplomacy
posted (September 4, 2024)
And while the MOE is working it out with ACC, MOFA has its hands full with the GAF. You saw the Guatemalan Armed Forces vessel ram into the BTV's this past Saturday. This aggression occurred despite the PM and the FM's recent trip to Guatemala, where matters like the Sarstoon and the ICJ were discussed.

But today when we asked the Foreign Minister about it, he said that Belize has already gone through the diplomatic channels to report the incident. While some members of the public may disagree with this method, Fonseca said it's better not to act on emotions.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"These are ongoing issues as you all know and as I've said, when these incidents occur there are two things that happen. One, the government of Belize, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs registers a very 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, reaffirming Belize's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We as well of course report the incident to the Organization of American States, this is apart of an agreement 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, ehere it happened, and then they issue a report sent to both countries so both of those things have been done and again we absolutely of course state very clearly that our sovereignty and territorial integrity over a part of the Sarstoon River, that is absolutely clear, the median line of the Sarstoon River is long established as a point between Belize and Guatemala so anything north of that median line is Belizean waters so that's our very clear position."

"We've had very good discussions with the Guatemalan government on these issues. We are in a position of authority and with authority comes responsibility, responsibility for our citizens, responsibility for our soldiers, so we can't be emotional or erratic about these incidents, that's why we worked very hard over many years, successive governments, to put in place a very formal structure for responding to these incidents, for dealing with these incidents which I have just outlined for you. So our responsibility and duty is to make sure we do those things. And that's what we've done."

And in our interview with BTV's Wil Maheia, he pointed out that Belize was quick to suspend diplomatic ties with Israel because of its genocide of the Palestinian people, so why not take harsher actions against Guatemala? Here's Fonseca's response:

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"What more serious diplomatic stance? We have agreed, the people of Belize have voted for us to solve this issue through the international court of justice. We're pursuing that path to a peaceful resolution on this matter. No disrespect to Wil, I like Wil, Will has never been in authority, he has never held power, he has never had responsibility for making decisions on behalf of the Belizean people. We have that responsibility. I have that responsibility as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. And we will exercise that authority with absolutely competence, with absolute recognition and respect for the people of this country with their interest. So it's not about being emotional and beating your chest and going down there and pretending that you're big and bad. It's about doing the right thing. In the interest of Belize. We're pursuing a path as I said through the ICJ, we're committed to that process, we were in Guatemala recently where the Guatemalan government reiterated their commitment to peaceful resolution of this matter through the ICJ. As I've said, we had very good discussions with the Ministry of Defense, with the president of Guatemala on all of these issues so there's no need for any erratic decision on the part of Belize."

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