As we told you last night, the Guatemalan Coast Guard detained 6 Belizeans in the Gulf of Honduras. They were out fishing in 3 separate boats when they were intercepted "between the mouth of the Moho River in Belize and Punta de Manabique, Izabal, Guatemala. Government's press release didn't give much details but today we spoke to one of the men who was detained, Yemeri Grove Villager Winston Thompson. He told us via phone what happened on this fishing trip with his wife and friends. And we also have an interview with another one of the men courtesy PG TV:
VOICE OF: Winston Thompson, Fisherman
"We were out fishing and they had this big Guatemalan coast guard boat with a big gun covered in the front and a big gun in the back. This boat was about 60 to 75 feet long, a huge boat and there was another skiff, this one was about 30 feet long, and it had a 250 horse power out board motor at the back and this had 3 people on board, one of which was armed with a machine gun, I'm not familiar with them, I think it is a machine gun and they drove up to me and they asked me for my documents, and I asked them why do you want to see my documents, and they said don't argue we just want to see your documents, so I saw the gun and I had my wife with me so I handed over my sea worthiness certificate from Port Authority and I handed them my Captain license and they asked for my wife's documents and I said she doesn't have any documents, she is with me, then they said you have to follow me to the Coast Guard , and I said why should I do that and they said you can't argue and they pulled the anchor rope and tied it to their boat and they took us to the big boat and they said you have to climb onboard."
"We got onboard and they showed us a GPS and said you are in Guatemalan waters, Belize only has 3 miles from the Coast out and the rest is for Guatemala , and I said we didn't know that, nobody told us that, we have been fishing here and nobody stopped us. Well, they said you are in Guatemalan waters and we will detain you and take you back to Guatemala."
"About an hour later, still traveling down to Livingston on the coast guard boat, the Commander of the Coast Guard told us , we will slow down now because we got word that the Government of Belize and the Government of Guatemala are negotiating, after that , they took us back to where they picked us up and then we came in."
Thompson said he wasn't too far from Punta Gorda and he thought he was within Belizean water but he said there were no border markers or signs to indicate where Belizean waters end. Thompson has been fishing in that area for about 12 years with no incident or interruption. It has still not been confirmed if these Belizeans were in Guatemalan waters or not.
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