In the past three weeks, we've reported on two cases of Guatemalans making brazen encroachments in Belizean territory. The first was a 20 acre milpa, one kilometer within Belize in the Caracol Archeological Park. The second was 50 gold panners, who fired at Belizean law enforcement, and ran off – only six of them were caught along with two firearms.
Both cases left us scratching our head because the law that applies to Belizeans apparently doesn't apply to Guatemalan encroachers. First, there's been no charge for milpa farming in an archeological park – those Guatemalans were only charged for immigration offences. The forestry department and Institute of Archaeology couldn't come up with charges to lay for farming in an archaeological protected area. But if a Belizean were to set up a farm at, say….Altun Ha – we're sure they'd find something to charge them with, right quick!
In the second case, the Guatemalan gold panners weren't charged for firearm possession because the guns weren't found on them. Now, we all know that in Belize City, if you are even on the same property of an unlicensed firearm – everyone in the area will be charged, and remanded.
So what's the double standard? Today we tried to find out from Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington. He told us today that he believes there are no double standards, just a simple lack of resources and personnel:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Minister of Foreign Affairs
"That is something that has been happening for years and years, again I've been informed of that specific one but that is the problem that has been happening for years. It is for that reason that it is imperative that we finally solve the Belize - Guatemala issue because by History and by Geography, we are placed side by side with Guatemala. People who are hungry are not going to have respect for borders - we would need the assistance of the Guatemalans to try to keep their people in as much as possible. The bottom line is that it is the responsibility of the government and people of Belize to keep its border safe and safe - that is our responsibility. We have had bitter complaints about people dealing with the Rosewood for example, fishing in the seas and we have had bitter complaints about the increasing crime in Belize City. It is not that the country has all the resources it needs to be able to deal with all of these things in the way that we want them to be dealt with. We have a serious constraint, in terms of human resource, apart from the finances - we are a small country, relatively poor, so to speak, so we can't do all the things in a way that we'd want to do them - that is what we're aspiring to. Bigger countries than us are finding it very difficult - Australia has tremendous problems now dealing with immigrants who are coming in by boat and as a matter of fact it is sought that the present government may well loose their seat because they are not doing enough - same complaints that are made in United Kingdom, same complaints are made in United States. The argument is that they are not doing enough so that dealing with people who are encroaching is difficult because you go to try and arrest them, you'll probably get shot - if you get shot, it takes a day to get you out and it's a difficult situation we are faced with. So I prefer to think that our response is dictated largely by the status of our resources as opposed to any deliberate policy to treat one set of people different from the others. Most Belizeans, if not all Belizeans, would not want to have Guatemalans coming into the country and I'd really love to see actions taken against them but we just don't have the resources - that's a fact of life."
Daniel Ortiz
"But sir, the FCD dialogued for the authorities, they extracted them from the Caracol Archaeological Reserve, brought them to the San Ignacio Police Station and yet there was still that instituional indifference."
Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"I am not agreeing with you that there's an institutional indifference - I don't know the detals but I can tell you that we have a serious human resource constraint."
According to Elrington, this is an issue which far more developed nations still face, where there is the perception that the law enforcement is not doing enough to protect the borders.
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