On Monday, we showed you the speech that Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington made to the United Nations General Assembly. Elrington described the Belize-Guatemala territorial dispute as an existential threat to Belize and the degradation of Belize's territory by trespassing Guatemalans who engage in multiple illegal activities. Well, the Guatemalans didn't like what Elrington had to say one bit. Yesterday, they fired off a nine point letter to the Secretary General of the OAS protesting Elrington's speech.
The letter says, quote, "Guatemala...rejects any suggestion of the intent to enforce their rights to the territory administered by Belize, through violent or military action." End quote.
Point four says quote, "While Guatemala's armed forces have not caused a single incident in the adjacency zone or nearby, the Belize Defense Forces have consistently violated the human rights of Guatemalans and so far have caused several deaths of fellow citizens and several injured, in addition to having made several incursions into Guatemalan territory, which have been verified by the Office of the OAS in the Adjacency Zone." End quote. IT adds, heatedly, that it is not acceptable that people should be killed simply for trespassing quote "especially when the (territory) is under dispute and what exists (as) recognized by both states is an adjacency zone." end quote.
And the Guatemalans go on to scold the Belize Government saying quote, "The Government of Guatemala does not accept the derogatory and discriminatory treatment used by the Foreign Minister of Belize regarding Guatemalan farmers, fishermen and villagers, blaming them for numerous illegal acts, which, on the contrary are a source of concern for our government and we are strongly involved in counteracting them."
You can find a link to the full, quite lengthy statement in Spanish at 7newsbelize.com
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