Finally! The Guatemalan container illegally and defiantly placed on Belizean
territory near Jalacte has been removed. A release from the Belize Defense Force
confirms that today BDF soldiers along with police and members of the Guatemalan
Armed Forces removed the container. We understand that with the use of a Ministry
of Works bulldozer it was pushed into Guatemalan territory. The bulldozer then
levelled the concrete base.
The Organization of American States supervised the removal process. Also present
to witness the event were a representative from the office of Belize’s
Ombudsman, and a representative of the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission. The
container has stood there since it was illegally installed by Santa Cruz businessman
Leonel Arellanos in November.
Prior attempts to move it were met with threats from Arellanos – but
though the BDF we are told had a heavy number of soldiers present – it
was moved without a shot being fired.
And so ends what had been a protracted embarrassment for the Government of
Belize. But it’s not over, as relations between the Santa Cruz residents
and the BDF – who have their treetops observation post nearby –are
now expected to be tense and uneasy – and after all the independent observers
and Guatemalan military are gone, it’s be just the Belizean soldiers and
that much traversed border line.
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