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Last night we showed you what’s happening on the southwestern edge of Belizean territory near Jalacte Village where a Guatemalan businessman has erected an illegal structure. The situation out there is tense because the BDF has been assigned to guard the area, but the businessman Leonel Arellanos is a big timer and the nearby Guatemalan village of Santa Cruz and feels he can throw his weight around.

But not up against the border of a sovereign state, and that’s the lesson he is expected to learn later this week when his offending structure is removed with the blessing of the OAS. But it will be done nicely, we are told by the BDF that no explosives will be used. Today Commander of the BDF General Dario Tapia explained that it has to be dismantled within the context of the confidence building measures.

Brig. Gen. Dario Tapia, BDF Commander
“The next step from here is to go in and dismantle the structure that is there. However we have been asked to do it in conjunction with the Guatemalan Armed Forces with participation of the OAS. So we are still waiting for the go ahead from the Ministry of National Security to go in and do that dismantlement.”

Jules Vasquez,
Why do we have to approach it with such delicacy, it is clearly, unequivocally in Belizean territory? If we put something up over there, they would a put C4 to it.

Brig. Gen. Dario Tapia,
“Well Jules you remember that we confidence building measures and that’s the reason but not only that because even the confidence building measures state that that whenever we do any actions along the border, such as dismantlement and moving people, it also has to have the participation of the Ombudsman and the equivalent on the Guatemalan side. So all of these diplomatic sort of things are now playing out and we have to do it properly in the interest of the international community to see that we are abiding by the confidence building measures and hence that is the delay with that matter.”

Jules Vasquez,
Why didn’t we stop it when you first became aware of it, this particular encroachment?

Brig. Gen. Dario Tapia,
“Well when we became aware of it, because from my understanding we cannot see the structure that was being constructed from the observation post; from my understanding, it is over on the other side of a hill. So we did not see construction going on until one of our patrols came across it and then we heard abut it through the report made by Will Maheia and Amandala.”

Jules Vasquez,
The fact is Will raised the alarm on or about November 20th, has the BDF by its inaction, has not the Ministry of National Security fomented this tension by not stopping it when it became aware of it? Let’s say November 20th, that’s when Will Maheia raised the public alarm.

Brig. Gen. Dario Tapia,
“Well Jules as I mentioned we have ways how we conduct our actions at the border as a result of the confidence building measures. I think in the interest of what the Government of Belize has signed, we have to abide by what we sign. Yes the CBM says we will dismantle once the verification is finished. We can argue that we could have stopped it earlier. Certainly we had been visiting that place regularly since then. Perhaps the action that should have been taken is to permanently place soldiers there which we did after the fact and certainly it is a learning lesson for us.”

The plan is that when the OAS team goes to the area on Thursday, they will be accompanied by a mapping expert from the Pan American Institute of Geography and History who will independently certify that the area is within Belizean territory.