And the first official acknowledgement came today when the Prime Minister returned from receiving treatment for his back in Atlanta.  7News met him at the airport and we asked him about that tense encounter. He says it happened on the same day that talks were being held in Washington DC – and his report of the event to the OAS Secretary General did factor into the talks:…
Rt. Hon Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"An encounter did take place on the very day that the meeting was taking place in Washington."
"Because of that encounter I called Secretary General Almagro before the meeting to make the point, listen, this is absolute bad faith this thing has got to be solved and it was on that sort of a basis that we came out of that meeting with what I certainly understood to be a commitment on the part of the Guatemalans to come to the table to negotiate an agreed protocol over the Sarstoon. Ultimately there was that encounter the Wednesday, by Wednesday evening the BDF had gone back out into the river, and was able to in fact go around the Sarstoon Island without any attempted interference by the Guatemalans."
"By the end of that day there had been that sort of progress. And I’m saying you’ve seen the secretary General’s statement and it is quite clear that the Guatemalans have agreed to the discussions."
We note that the PM says the encounter took place the same day as the talks in Washington which would have been Wednesday May 4th, while the government press release says the changeover took place on Tuesday, May second. As we noted earlier, BDF sources also tell us it happened on May second.
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