And we also got Minister Elrington and his CEO Alexis Rosado to speak about the ongoing efforts by the Belize Territorial Volunteers.
That's the Wil Maheia group that's going back to clear other parts of the border on April 6thand 7th. Wil Maheia will go to the area of Gracias a Dios in Southwestern Belize, Nancy Marin will go to the area of Garbutt Falls in Western Belize, and Orlando De la Fuente will head to Aguas Turbias in Northwestern Belize.
Today, Elrington again cautioned them about the hazards of border clearing, while his CEO was more moderate:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Minister of Foreign Affairs
"A part from that, those areas are covered in thick jungles. We can't go cut that with machetes; that's thick jungle. So you've been there, you've shown over and over, but I do appreciate that some people believe - genuinely believe - that it is an act of nationalism. I could understand people being nationalistic they are, but I think it's a dangerous way of showing their nationalism, dangerous for yourself, for the nation, and to that extent we advise against it."
Alexis Rosado - CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
"My understanding is what they're doing is not clearing the boarder - clearing the line. My understanding is a nice symbolic gesture that they're making. They're making sure that they keep a distance from the actual boarder line, and once they keep within Belize territory I think it's something that the Minister said; it's a show of patriotic nationality sentiment. With that particular part, nothing is wrong with that but if like the Minister said, if you go and actually try do what they originally said or going to do, it a different thing, because you have to thread across the other side."
Jules Vasquez
"There's a particular problem, not to prolong it - but, there's a problem with Aguas Turbias."
Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"Yes, I heard you said that, and that's another problem, you see because the suggestion is that as demarcated it is not consistent with the coordinates that are contained in the treaty. I've heard that said, so that again could mislead people in believing that they're in Belizean territory when they may well be in Guatemala territory. So that's something that needs to be brought to mind to, that needs to be borne in mind too."
During the discussions over the Ramphal-Reichler proposals in the mid-aughts we learned that the border line between Garbutt's Falls and Aguas Turbias has an error.
It should have been drawn due north of Garbutt's falls, but is instead aligned to the border of Mexico and Guatemala - which is a little bit to the west - too much to the west according to some mapping experts.
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