BELIZE-Belize will protest the incursion by a Guatemalan Coast Guard vessel.

BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC -The Belize government says it will “strongly protest the illegal incursion” by a Guatemalan naval vessel in its territorial waters near Ragged Caye, about three miles south of Hunting Caye this week.

The commandant of the Belize Coast Guard, Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, reported that there was an exchange of words between the boat’s personnel and a Belizean Coast Guard patrol.
Guatemalan ship in Belizean waters

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade said it had received information about a Guatemalan vessel illegally traversing Belizean waters in the area of the Sapodilla Cayes.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has confirmed that the Guatemalan vessel did not run aground, as reported, and members of the Belize Coast Guard, after engaging with the Guatemalan officers on board, escorted the Guatemalan patrol boat out of Belizean waters.”

The ministry said that it “will vehemently protest the illegal incursion by the Guatemalan patrol boat into Belizean waters and will call on the Guatemalan authorities to dissuade their armed forces from continuing to traverse into Belizean waters without authorization from Belizean authorities.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade will continue to engage with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala to insist that its Armed Forces respect the maritime and territorial integrity of Belize and its internationally recognized borders,” the statement said.

Rear Admiral Bennett said that the 65-foot-long Guatemalan vessel appeared to be a hydrography vessel belonging to the Guatemalan Navy.

He said that the Belize Coast Guard patrol had informed those on board the vessel that “they were inside Belizean waters.

“It was an exchange of words at that location. Eventually, the Guatemalan patrol vessel departed. We escorted that vessel outside of Belizean waters. From here, the Ministry of Defense will inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who will then take the lead in following up with a protest note.

“We believe that the diplomatic channels would kick in, and that’s the route we will rely on to confirm exactly what occurred. It wasn’t an aggressive encounter, even though they were inside Belizean waters. No weapons were drawn, and it was not a grounding,” he added.

Guatemala and Berlese have a centuries-old territorial dispute that centers on Guatemala’s claim to more than half of Belize’s territory,

Guatemala claims the territory as an inheritance from Spain, the former colonial power in the region. Guatemala withdrew from a border treaty with Britain in 1939 and continued to advance its claim, even after Belize gained independence in 1981.

In 2018, Belize took the matter before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, and the Guatemalans did the same the following year. The issue was formalized before the ICJ on June 12, 2019.

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have reiterated their “firm and unswerving support for the maintenance and preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Belize.

They urged Belize, Guatemala, and the Organization of American States (OAS) to continue fully implementing the confidence-building measures, which have been in place since 2005, pending the resolution of Guatemala’s claim at the ICJ.