As you've heard, since last year August, the Government has pointed fingers at Wil Maheia and the Territorial Volunteers as the cause of all the tension over the Sarstoon River. The Prime Minister has gone on record acknowledging their well-intentioned show of nationalism, but he's also asked them to cease and desist because it does more harm than good.
Well, at a press conference hosted by his Belize Progressive Partytoday, Maheia reiterated that he and other like-minded nationalists are not going to stop, despite this latest showdown:
Wil Maheia - Leader, Belize Territorial Volunteers
"I have absolutely no dislike for my neighbors. But my neighbors have got to play by the rules. They have got to respect our borders. My neighbor who lives next to me, I like him, but he cannot come into my yard and cut down what tree he wants. That is the bottom-line."
Jules Vasquez
"Minister Elrington has been pushing a narrative for some time it is you all, the territorial volunteers and that type of activism that has made the Sarstoon a flat point. In the past, he claims the Sarstoon was cool. Maybe slightly warm, but now you all have overheated it by your radical combative form of engagement. How do you respond to that?"
Wil Maheia - Leader, Belize Territorial Volunteers
"It's about to get hotter. Because we will not be deterred and combative? I don't think we are combative. No weapons, not even a machete was in out boat when we went. So I don't think we go there in a combative mode. We go there because as Belizeans I believe that every Belizean have the right to move in every part of this country and our borderline, according to the 1859 treaty states that our border is at the midpoint, deepest point of the Sarstoon River including the Sarstoon Island. So I don't think that we are combative and I don't think that we are the type of organization that promote violence. I have never ever taken any weapon with me on any of our expeditions."
Email
Print