Wilfred Elrington
According to Minister Elrington, there is an allegation that Belizeans went across the Guatemalan side, and there is an allegation that Guatemalans came over on our side – and there won’t be any action taken until they determine what the truth is. He says they will ask the Guatemalans to join with them in asking the O.A.S. to do the verification. After that verification, says Elrington, there is protocol in place to deal with incursions into Belize.
Reporter
“Sir I would like to suggest that this is more than an incursion. If it is found that indeed the Belizeans were taken out of Belizean waters it is more than an incursion…it amounts to kidnapping.”
Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“And the big word there is if, so we are in the realm of speculation. And like my C.E.O. said, he’s not really there to speculate. We can’t speculate. The matter is too important for us to be speculating on it and to take this kind of “what if” attitude. Our position has always been that we’ll find out what the facts are, and once we find out what the facts are we will take the appropriate action.”
Reporter
“Could you give us a timeline for what is happening in terms of finding out, because I would think that it would be relatively easy to verify what happened when, and the locations?”
Wilfred Elrington
“I am sure we’ll have some report on it within the next sixty days.”
Reporter
“Sixty days?”
Wilfred Elrington
“Because we’ve got to make requests to the O.A.S….they’ve got to make requests to the agency that has the G.P.S. that does the reporting, but there are other things that people have to do. This is not the only thing that is on people’s agenda. So as soon as we have it done we’ll make it public, available…there’s nothing to hide, you know…there’s nothing to hide.”
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