This age-old border dispute pits an army against unarmed volunteers

The boat made its way past the mangrove swamps, a tangle of thorn-covered branches that sheltered jaguars and screeching howler monkeys. We were in Belize, our GPS signals showed, the English-speaking Central American country British pirates laid down centuries ago.

But then members of the Guatemalan army, dressed in camouflage and berets, saw us. They pulled up in their own boat and grabbed their guns, with their index fingers close to the triggers.

“You just entered Guatemalan waters!” someone shouted in Spanish when they were just a few feet away. “We request that you be directed to the nearest Guatemalan command post.”

Wil Maheia, the leader of the Belize group we were embedded with, shouted back, “No, you are treading Belizean waters! If you take us into custody, that's kidnapping!'

The episode exposed a simmering political dispute in one of Central America's most volatile corners, pitting Belize, Central America's least populous country with only about half a million people, against Guatemala, the region's giant with 18 million inhabitants. .

The unresolved territorial feud – one of the oldest in the Americas – is flaring tensions in the smuggling hub that has sprung up around the disputed border between the two countries, raising fears of greater instability in a region already marked by drug wars and the exodus of refugees. migrants to the United States.

The standoff on that scorching February day on a remote stretch of the Sarstoon River lasted just a few minutes. Members of the Guatemalan military's naval forces, armed to the teeth, and the unarmed Belizean Territorial Volunteers, a group that claims sovereignty in disputed areas, hurled accusations at each other before the pilot of our Belizean-registered boat turned and sped away.

Both countries have been striving for this for years arrange the dispute before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. But with a final ruling not expected until next year, or possibly later, there is growing unease in Belize, which faces the possibility of losing part of its own territory to a much larger neighbor. Guatemala, on the other hand, is limited to losing a claim to land it does not officially occupy.

Although the likelihood of actual military clashes between the two countries appears low, Belizean authorities are particularly tense due to illegal activities in the disputed zone, including illegal fishing; unauthorized migration; the cultivation of coca, the factory that produces cocaine; And raids from Guatemala feeding a deforestation golf.

If these issues aren't enough, there's another: pressure from Belize's own citizens to take a stronger position in the dispute.

Fed up with what he perceived as his own government's inaction in the face of repeated Guatemalan incursions into Belizean territory, Mr. Maheia, a conservationist, formed his own band of volunteers more than a decade ago, aimed at asserting the Belize's sovereignty in areas claimed by both countries.

“Our leaders dropped the ball when they defended us,” said 62-year-old Maheia. “I thought: this is my country and I'm going to do something to protect it.”

Every few months they take a boat to the southernmost reaches of Belize, along the Sarstoon River, and plant the Belizean flag among the mangroves. After repeatedly filming themselves facing verbal harassment from Guatemalan soldiers, the strategy yielded results: Belize's government last year relocated soldiers to an abandoned military post at the mouth of the river.

Yet Guatemalan forces merely remove Belizean flags, fueling widespread anger in Belize. Audrey Matura, a prominent lawyer and activist from Belize, filmed herself spitting on the Guatemalan flag at a luxury hotel in Belize City.

The incident made Belize's national news programs and Ms. Matura refused to apologize.

The dispute is also creating tension in Belizean politics. Shyne Barrow, the leader of the opposition in Belize, recently questioned why Belize should commit soldiers to a proposed Kenyan-led security force in crisis-ridden Haiti, while the dispute with Guatemala is far from resolved.

“Do you want to go to Haiti while Guatemalan forces in the Sarstoon are undermining our sovereignty?” Mr Barrow told reporters. He also argued that tensions with Guatemala have shown why Belize needs to increase the size of its armed forces.

The Belizean military has only approx 2,000 employees compared to Guatemala, with more than 20,000.

Despite that lack of equality, a major political shift in Guatemala — the election of Bernardo Arévalo, Guatemala's most progressive leader in decades — has raised hopes in Belize that Guatemala's approach to the dispute might finally soften. Belize's Prime Minister John Briceño even attended the inauguration in January as a show of goodwill.

But Carlos Ramiro Martínez Alvarado, Guatemala's foreign minister, made it clear that Arévalo's government would press ahead with its claim to Belizean territory.

“It is a policy of the state, not of a government,” Mr. Martínez Alvarado told The New York Times in an interview. Continuing, drawing a contrast from Guatemala's established borders with Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras, he said there is “no border” with Belize.

The dispute also focuses on other crucial differences between the two countries. With forests covering With about 55 percent of its landmass, Belize remains one of Latin America's least densely populated countries, with just 18 inhabitants per square kilometer, according to the United Nations.

Although Guatemala is more than four times larger in area than Belize, it is also much more densely populated with approximately 160 people per square kilometer. The capitals of the two countries epitomize this imbalance: the anarchic, busy streets of Guatemala City bustle with activity, while Belmopan, a planned city built by the British in the 1960s with fewer than 30,000 inhabitants, has the air of a sleepy, small town. village.

Such imbalances, and signs that deforestation and overexploitation are affecting Guatemala's natural resources, raise concerns that more Guatemalans, who are already responsible for bulk of migrants in Belize could enter the country regardless of how the court in The Hague rules on the dispute.

“People will be looking for a place to go,” said Christopher De Shield, professor of literature at the University of Belize. “We are right next to it.”

Wariness among Belizeans toward their larger neighbor dates back more than two centuries, to the time the Central American countries gained independence from Spain. English-speaking buccaneers and lumberjacks had settled in the British settlement in the Bay of Honduras, as Belize was then called.

Guatemala claimed it had inherited Spanish assets in the area, casting doubt on the settlement's sovereignty. In 1939, Guatemala withdrew from a border treaty for territory it had signed with Britain, and aggressively pressed its claim, including drawing up plans to invade Belize in the 1970s, and collecting tanks and troops along the border.

Even after Belize gained full independence in 1981, the dispute persisted. Guatemala refused to recognize the new country, and when it did so ten years later, it never withdrew its claim. As recently as 2021, the Guatemalan government made this clear Cards of the country should also include Belize, or what it calls “area administered by the Government of Belize.”

“Guatemalans were raised to believe that part of their country was stolen by the British,” said Victor Bulmer-Thomas, a scholar of Latin American history who has closely followed the dispute. “Since no compensation was ever given, many Guatemalans feel a sense of injustice.”

Currently, Guatemala is believed to claim more than half of Belize's territory, although Guatemala's Foreign Minister, Mr. Martínez Alvarado, said the precise details of the claim are classified. As the dispute continues, it sows confusion.

Raquel Rodriguez, the owner of an art school in Belmopan, said she was stunned after living in Guatemala for several years when she encountered people who casually referred to Belize as “Departamento 23” – the 23rd department or state of Guatemala.

“I thought, 'What the hell are you talking about?'” Ms. Rodriguez, 45, said.

But the same kind of hostility toward Guatemala exists in Belize, she added. Nowadays, for example, she says she is labeled a “traitor” if she posts something positive about Guatemala on Facebook.

“Both sides can be irrational on this issue,” Ms. Rodriguez said.

Still, the dispute in Guatemala may no longer have the political traction it once did.

“Today people are talking more about the fight against corruption, crime and infrastructure,” said Roberto Wagner, a consultant and political analyst in Guatemala City. But while the dispute is “no longer a national priority,” that does not mean it is about to disappear, he added.

“Abandoning the claim would be a sign of weakness,” Mr Wagner said. “Anyone who does that will bear the stigma of public opinion saying, 'That's the one who gave away Belize.'”

Jody Garcia contributed reporting from Guatemala City.