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Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I have today met with President Morales in the marching of the UN Climate Change signing ceremony. I have indicated to President Morales that the position taken by him and his government cannot conduce to peace and that there is an immediate need to de-escalate tensions. We agreed that all measures will be taken to achieve end. We agreed that while we are awaiting the results of the inquiry, contact/dialogue must be maintained to ensure that there are no breaches of the peace that exists between Belize and Guatemala. We also spoke about the Sarstoon and again, we agreed that there is indeed the work of some kind of a protocol to govern the operation of the two countries on the Sarstoon. So, I am satisfied that our message has been deliberate, while I cannot pretend that the government of Guatemala is other than insistent that their version of events is correct and while they continue to say that in their view the BDF murdered this minor. We reiterated that there cannot be that kind of a rush to judgement especially in view of our conviction that the BDF was exercising its right to self defence. In addition to that, in Belize from Belmopan, officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from my office of the Prime Minister, are in touch with the Americans, British and others of our partners and to keep them completely in the loop as we proceed as to ask them as well to urge that the Guatemalans do what in fact, I repeat, President Morales has promise that he will do - that is de-escalate tensions, have us return to a state of normalcy, continue the dialogue and the communication while we await the findings of the inquiry. Pending the result of that exercise, Belize maintains its position, which is that our soldiers came under attack or fired upon and that what happened was a consequence of their returning fire in an effort to defend themselves. While clearly the loss of the Guatemalan life is regretted and while we are particularly anxious because it was a minor that was killed, we insist that the Belize Defence Force, based on the reports they have submitted, confirmed by the members of the Friends for Conservation (FCD), as a civilian portion - as part of the civilian complement - as part of the patrol, their confirmation makes us even more insistent that pending the results of the inquiry, the position is as we have officially. I recollected for the President, that Sgt. Lambey was shot perhaps just two weeks ago and also recalled the murder of special constable Conorquie, but while of course we cannot prove that Guatemalan civilians were responsible, that is certainly the thought, the feeling, the conviction and it goes to show how dangerous the situation is. We will also as we have done on previous occasion seek the assistance of the United States asking them to deploy a forensic or number of forensics experts to help with the reconstruction of the incident. We are confident that in fact there will be this lessening of tension."

The PM's telephone message in its full ten minute entirety will air after the news. But to go over the key points, the two leaders met this evening in New York, and Morales agreed to de-escalate. Second, the OAS will do an investigation, and third, the Americans will help in doing a forensic investigation. Now, the Prime Minister has not disclosed specifics, such as whether "de-escalating" means Morales will call back his troops. As we reported last night, Morales yesterday recorded an incendiary statement saying that his army would be sending troops to the western and southern border. This is in response to the BDF fatally shooting a 13 year old Guatemalan boy in the Cebada area of the Chiquibul. The Guatemalans says he was shot eight times; the BDF says they came under fire in the dark, and returned fire in self defence. Pictures posted on the Guatemalan government's facebook page show those deployments - including the feared kaibil special forces. The Prensa Libre reports that three thousand troops were being deployed.