WASHINGTON, Sept 11, CMC – The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, says he is “not completely surprised” at the latest flareup between Belize and Guatemala even as he had “hoped that these things would not happen”.
On Thursday there was a tense standoff along the Sarstoon River when a fleet of 14 Guatemalan Armed Forces (GAF) vessels, including military gunboats, blocked members of the Belize Territorial Volunteers (BTV) from reaching Sarstoon Island.
The BTV group departed from Punta Gorda on three boats for their 15th annual expedition to Sarstoon Island to hold a traditional flag-raising ceremony, which is held on September 10 to coincide with St. George’s Caye Day, a national holiday celebrating Belizean territorial sovereignty.
Ramdin said the incident “confirms something which we had already indicated that I do expect in the coming months, given the sensitivities, Independence Day and all of that, that some groups will create some incidents,” he said, adding “so I’m not completely surprised. I had hoped that these things would not happen”.
Belize and Guatemala have a long-standing territorial dispute with Guatemala claiming more than 11,000 square kilometers of Belizean land, islands and maritime areas. The dispute is before the International Court of Justices (ICJ)
In March 2000, Belize and Guatemala resumed discussions on their territorial dispute with the assistance of the OAS and on November 8, 2000, they signed the first Agreement on Confidence Building Measures, establishing an “Adjacency Line” and a one-kilometer “Adjacency Zone” on either side.
A second Agreement was signed on February 7, 2003, and subsequently amended in September 2005 by the “Agreement on a Framework for Negotiation and Confidence Building Measures between Belize and Guatemala.
On September 1, the foreign ministers of Belize and Guatemala Tuesday met with at Ramdin at the the Adjacency Zone, a territorial strip 213 kilometers long and two kilometers wide and was established in 2000 as a key confidence-building measure to preserve stability, dialogue, and peace during the process to resolve the territorial dispute between the two countries.
Through the Office of the General Secretariat in the Adjacency Zone, the OAS maintains a continuous presence dedicated to preventive diplomacy, security, and social development.
Ramdin told a virtual news conference attended by a select group of Caribbean journalists that the OAS has spoken about the situation “at length in private between both countries. “Both Foreign Minister Fonseca and Foreign Minister Martinez have been very clear to me, and I trust both of them in this instance very well, that they will keep dialogue ongoing. They will keep discussing matters.
“The Adjacency Zone office doesn’t have a mandate for other cross-border infringements, okay, or even within territories through rivers and so on. So I have not received a report on this as yet, but it’s not surprising to me.
“I would have hoped that it doesn’t happen. At the same time, we expect wisdom and cool management of this process so that we don’t get matters like these escalate. Regretfully, there are groups which have a different position than often the government has, and we’ll have to manage that.
“But it is not, in my view, the general view of both governments. Both governments are very committed, and I have saluted both presidents, Prime Minister Bresenio and President Arevalo, for the stance they take and the way they try to solve this problem in awaitance of the ICJ discussion.
“And we have already committed, and there is more interest from other countries, to work towards the post-ICJ resolution in terms of implementation and facilitating assistance to both countries in terms of how to implement that decision.
“o I’m hopeful, and I regret that such an incident took place. And I’m sure, I’m convinced that the authorities will handle it with care, but at the same time with clarity,” Ramdin said.
CMC/ag/ir/2026