Unauthorized Guatemalan Flight Exposes Belize’s Military Limitations

Belize’s military tracked the unauthorized Guatemalan aircraft and gathered intelligence as it moved through the country’s airspace. But it never responded from the air. That is raising a critical question tonight: does Belize have the resources to defend its skies against Guatemala’s far superior air power?

 

Francis Usher, CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

“We do, one, launch investigations to confirm what is happening and then we take necessary action. I don’t want to get into the details of the necessary action, because I don’t want to put the entire playbook on the table, because there are things that are sensitive.”

 

Paul Lopez

“How prepared are we to respond in a situation like that, as a military, I think that’s what a lot of Belizean are asking?”

 

Francis Usher

“We have several courses of action that we take in various situations. We do, quite often what we call war gaming, which is when we look at various different scenarios, what could occur and what are our responses, the most likely, the most dangerous. We war game these things and we have several options available to us.”

 

Airspace Incident Threatens Belize/Guatemala Bilateral Cooperation

 

Belize still does not know why a Guatemalan military aircraft spent more than an hour in its airspace Thursday night. With Guatemala offering no clear explanation, the Foreign Affairs Ministry is exploring whether someone intended to disrupt cooperation between both countries through the OAS. The incident also comes as Belize and Guatemala prepare for oral hearings before the ICJ in February and March 2027.

 

Oscar Arnold, CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

“I believe that a further investigation will be launched as to why this happened. We sent a strongly worded protest note to Guatemala asking them for some answers and then we will escalate from there. We put this into the context that we are not looking at this as a singular incident. We know in September there is an uptick of nationalism on both sides of the border. We understand in the larger scheme of things that Guatemala will have elections next year, June to August where they have their rounds of elections and we understand there may be individuals who want to derail the project we have with the OAS and the ICJ and we are nearing a resolution this. In so far as the Government of Belize, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have to act responsibly and we will always act with the facts that we have available to us. We cannot be derailed. We will not be discouraged or distracted, in so far as presenting the evidence we have. We are here at the UN and we will be speaking with our friendly nations.”

 

CEO Arnold referenced a recent Commonwealth statement condemning the September tenth activities by the Guatemalan Armed Forces on the Sarstoon River, as a signal that Belize has the support of numerous friendly nations in the ongoing dispute.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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