La OEA investigará el reciente incidente fronterizo entre Belice y Guatemala
O.A.S. Gets Ready to Investigate Border Incidents and Incursions into Belize
The O.A.S. is getting set to commence its investigation into the death of a Guatemalan minor in the Chiquibul. And according to Minister Wilfred Elrington, that organization will also be looking into the murder of Danny Conorquie and the shooting of B.D.F. Staff Sergeant Richard Lambey, which seems to be a very recent request despite the timing of those attacks. But has the government been getting the word out as it should, since as a country we maintain that the problem continues to be the encroachment of our territory by Guatemalans who have gotten increasingly aggressive. Not one of the incidents for which Guatemala has castigated Belize internationally happened in Guatemalan territory. All were within Belize. That in itself should be a nail in Guatemala’s PR coffin, but have our representatives picked up the hammer? Elrington told News Five on Tuesday that everybody knows what’s happening so there’s no reason to keep repeating it.
Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“The fact that people are coming across from Guatemala to Belize is widely known. That is not anything that anybody doesn’t know. And people know that is one of the reasons why we are having problems, because we have made it an issue on so many occasions. I’ve spoken about it at the United Nations on more than one occasion, and whenever we meet at these forums we talk about these things, so this is widely known. But you have to appreciate that the entire issue of migrants is a huge issue internationally, whether it is in Europe, whether it is in Africa, whether it is migrants coming from Central America going to the United States, so the world knows that you have these problems with people who are economic migrants or whoever it is coming across, and this gives rise to incidents. The people abroad, for example the people in that forum there, probably know more about Belize than the people here, because they keep themselves informed. They are fully apprised of the situation, so one does not have to repeat all these things. It is for these reasons that you don’t want to repeat it. In a forum like that you don’t want to be in a back and forth. But people know what happened. People knew that in fact the people were hunting in our country in the night and one got killed and the other two got shot. That is well known. That is being looked into. We are going to have the O.A.S. do an independent investigation. Our civil authorities have an obligation to do an investigation as well. It is being looked into. So we don’t have to remind the international community of that. They are fully aware of it.”
