Email

Print

This morning, we spoke to National Security CEO George Lovell, who had received a briefing from the Coast Guard. Here's what he told us:

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"The Coast Guard was informed that there was a vessel on our reef off Glover's reef in the vicinity of Middle Caye. Immediately our Coast Guard officials centered sent out patrols into area to confirm the reports of this grounded vessel which was confirmed that there is a vessel a Guatemalan Coast Guard vessel with markings GC651 on that vessel. When we went to the ground we also observed that there was a second vessel that was in close proximity to where this vessel went aground and we were then concerned. we got in touch with Ministry of Foreign Affairs who in turn got in touch with our Guatemala counterparts and they informed us that the vessels where destined to go to La Isla Mujeres in Mexico. Our Coast Guard that were on the ground had an opportunity to speak to the crew of the Guatemalan Coast Guard vessel and they confirmed that yes they were heading to Mexico. They claimed that they had lost steering and that they drifted unto the reef."

Reporter
"Is there a reason why they were passing through our territorial waters as oppose to international seas?"

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"My understanding according to them is that they were within the international waters. There's a 12 mile limit and they were in the international waters when they experienced difficulties and they drifted into our reef."

But, viewers may remember that 3 months ago, the Guatemalan military detained 36 persons who were on a trip organized by the Northern Territorial Volunteers. They were going to the Gracias A Dios border marker, and according to the Guatemalans, these Belizeans ventured into a tributary of the Sarstoon River which is in their territory. They were then detained and taken to Livingston, Guatemala.

So, what will be the response from the Belizean Government in this incident, since it is clear that they are in Belizean waters? The CEO told us that the perspective of the authorities is that it would be unwise to have a knee-jerk reaction to jail them as a sort of an eye for an eye:

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"As we speak, we are putting together a task force that will be deployed out into the area and the task force will be made up of all the relevant agencies that normally deals with these type of groundings. Based on any certification that they give to us in terms of what they experience out on the ground, claims will obviously have to be made for damages against the Guatemalan Coast Guard and the Guatemalan Government."

Reporter
"How does that work in the light of ongoing dispute between both countries? The territorial dispute between Belize and Guatemala."

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"This is the first and for me to say how it works we will just see and time will tell, but we will make a claim just like we will make whenever there is any damage to our reef."

Reporter
"How are you treating this concerning the fact that there have been multiple reports of Guatemalans entering our territorial waters? This times it's their Coast Guard running around damaging our reef. One: there's 2 implication that the emotional feeling that this will trigger off with Belizeans and, two: what are we doing with those officers of the Guatemalan counterparts? Have we detain them because we know just several some of misunderstanding our Belizeans were detained. What are we doing?"

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"There are several things that we are doing. First of all we have to establish precisely what happened on the ground. We know that they have claimed to have been going to Mexico and so we have our officials confirming that that is in fact so. I can tell you that the initial report that I received from my Coast Guard is that the Mexican confirmed that the Guatemalans had a port call and they confirmed that the manifest that they have speaks to the people that were on this vessel that went grounded on our reef. So, it would appear that it was a legitimate passage. Now, the circumstances will only be clearer when our task force goes out there and do the relevant investigations. As it relates to the question of detaining the officials, we want to ensure that we do an investigation which is above board and we're not going to try and use the opportunity to say you have incurred and just arrest people. There is a mutual understanding that we have in matters like these and we will address it at the highest level."

The Belizean military has pointed out to us that the Guatemalans have the "right of innocent passage" into Belizean waters or "Navigational Right of Transit". Those rights are afforded to them under the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas, to which Belize is a signatory. As this documents shows, they were on the way to La Isla Mujer in Mexico. The Mexicans have reportedly confirmed this.

Right now, our news team is on Glover's reef with a multi-Government agency taskforce which has been dispatched to investigate the incident and the damage to the reef if there is any. They could;t make it back in time and had to spend the night there, but we'll have the full story for you in tomorrow's newscast.