7 News Belize

Sedi Says Guat Civilians Not Ready
posted (July 12, 2016)
This evening, we asked Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington about the escapade. He told us that he also has been briefed of this trip:

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I heard about it. Somebody told me about it yesterday or the day before. But it is not surprising to me. As I have said to most Belizeans, as I have said publicly over and over Guatemalans have been claiming the entire since 1939 - it's nothing new, the Sarstoon situation is nothing new. It is just that some Belizeans seem just to have found out about it really recently a year or two ago and they have sought to make a big issue of it. But I grew up dealing with this issue, as I told you I was in fact arrested and charged for opposing Guatemala's claim to o0ur country. That was in 1968. So it is nothing new. I am fully aware of it and have been opposing it since the early 60s and I continue to do that and will do that until I die. Because this country belongs to us."

Daniel Ortiz
"Isn't this particular situation sort of proof positive of why the government of Guatemala may be very careful where it on the diplomatic stage says one thing and on the ground doing something differently, because it does not want to lose the support of this extreme Guatemalan electorate?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I don't think the electorate is extreme. Just like here in Belize you have extremist, but they are normally the minority. I think that that is the case here as well as over there. I don't think they are bothered by the people who go there, except that those people can be violent and that's one of the main reason why I was suggesting that we should be careful. That was the only reason."

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