And while that happened on Thursday inside Guatemala, this weekend in the Chiquibul, there was another confrontation with Guatemalan civilians which led to a shooting, a non-fatal one in this case. They were gold-panning in Belizean territory, which as viewers know, is illegal, and it led to a shooting. This time it was non-fatal - but once again, Belize and Guatemala completely disagree on whether the use of force was appropriate or not.
Those 3 men were arrested and charged by Belize police, and they were arraigned today in San Ignacio. We'll get to that, but first, we start with the incident itself which led to the shooting.
The official Belize version went out this weekend, 21 hours after this incident. According to the National Security Ministry on Friday evening, May 13, at around 7:45 p.m., a joint patrol, consisting of officers from the BDF, the Police, and rangers from the Friends for Conservation and Development, encountered 10 to 15 Guatemalans engaged in illegal gold mining. They were in the Ceibo Chico area of the Chiquibul, about 7.9 kilometers east of the Belize Guatemala Border, which meant that they were in Belizean territory.
The patrol detained 3 of the men from the group of Guatemalans who were gold panning, namely 21 year-old Solomon Martinez Pasqual, 17 year-old Edin Alexander Escobar Garcia, and this man 23 year-old Carlos Roberto Perez Hernandez. The Belize lawmen say during the detention, Perez Hernandez, who was wielding a machete, advanced on a member of the patrol in an aggressive manner. The officer then fired a warning shot in the air, but the Guatemalan continued to advance on him. The officer was forced to fire another shot in self-defense, which then wounded Perez Hernandez in his elbow.
The officers then rendered first aid to him, and then all 3 men were escorted from Ceibo Chico to the San Ignacio Police Station, where they were handed over for processing. The aftermath of the incident is already taking a familiar direction. Guatemala, is completely rejecting the Belize version of the incident. We'll get to that, but first, to the comments of Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington. We caught him at another event on Saturday, and here's what he told us about what he knew at that time:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I was just informed that in fact it there was one of the people whom they met - they say they met 10 of them and in the process of dealing with them, one of them became violent and assaulted one of the rangers and I get he got injured in the process. That is as far as I know."
Daniel Ortiz
"The Guatemalan official with the last fatal shooting - they went on a public relations war against Belize suggesting to the international community that the BDF are human rights violators. Do you as the lead diplomat intend to intercede as quickly as possible, so that this particular incident is not runaway with to give Belize a black eye?"
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"You can rest assure that the Belize authorities are very competent in dealing with all eventuality. I think the country is very fortunate to have a very competent leadership at this point in time and I think we are able to handle the matter quiet well, but I would want to suggest that maybe the press would see themselves as having a responsibility to the society. All of us have responsibility and I messed up, I am expurgated, criticized, but there is no accountability for the press. The press says anything and nobody bring them to account and they do grave harm to our society. I would really like to see some restraint on the part of the press. Sometimes I wonder whether the press is foreign own."
The Guatemalan Newspaper, Prensa Libre, in a weekend article, reported that the Government of Guatemala has denounced the Belize military for what it interprets as excessive use of force.
Translated, a statement from the Guatemalan Foreign ministry says, quote, "...The Government of Guatemala laments and denounces before the international community, this recent use of excessive military force by Belize and rejects the official version that the Guatemalan farmer, armed with a machete, could attack a patrol officer of the Belize Defence Force who is properly equipped and armed."
So, it's very much as we had asked Elrington this weekend, and as you heard, he was more willing to criticize the local media for what he views as misrepresenting the facts and the scale of what has happened. He elaborated on his media aversion:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"My experience is that it doesn't matter what you say to the press. They are to the extent to make it as negative as possible - can't figure it out. I find that the same criticism is made of the United States press, people seem to disregard the need for truth and honesty and they go into sensationalism. So I don't know. But I am told that a press release is being sent out."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you concerned that the Guatemalans would see it as some kind of escalation? We know that there have been perverse interpretations given, too many events?"
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I am more concern really about the position of the Belizeans. Because when the local press is finish with it every Belizean is frightened. Where the press portray this incident, it is as the end of the world and I am not just saying this now. I've been adverting to it for some time. An incident occurred, I really that what it could simply do is to reproduce the press release. But that would not suffice the media - sensationalize it and by the time they are finish with it, everybody is scared. It doesn't help us."
Late this evening, the 3 Guatemalans, 21 year-old Solomon Martinez Pasqual, 17 year-old Edin Alexander Escobar Garcia, and 23 year-old Carlos Roberto Perez Hernandez, were arraigned in the San Ignacio Magistrate's Court.
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