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Senator Shoman is going to Sarstoon Island; GOB says its irresponsible

By on August 14, 2015
Senator Lisa Shoman

Senator Lisa Shoman

Punta Gorda town, Belize. Friday, August 14, 2015. Preparations continue for the much-anticipated excursion to Sarstoon Island on Sunday by the Belize Territorial Volunteers.

On Thursday, People’s United Party (PUP) Senator Lisa Shoman announced that she has decided to join the BTV on the trip to Sarstoon Island.

With her announcement, Shoman becomes the highest-level public official to join the BTV on the much-anticipated trip to Sarstoon Island.

In a letter to Foreign Affairs minister Wilfred Elrington,Shoman informs that she will be on the excursion which is expected to take over a hundred people to the Sarstoon Island which is near the Belize border with Guatemala.

Government officials have repeatedly advised against the trip.

Shoman explains in her letter that she is going on the trip on Sunday “in my capacity as a Senator and Member of the National Assembly of Belize, as well as the Representative of the Leader of the Opposition on the Ministry team dealing with the unfounded Guatemalan claim to Belize, and as a Belizean.”  

The letter from Shoman to the Minister of Foreign Affairs was copied to the Leader of the Opposition, Belize’s ambassador in Guatemala Alexis Rosado, the Commander of the BDF Brigadier General David Jones as well as officials of the OAS Adjacency Zone office.

Shoman says she is concerned that government does not seem to treating “acts of aggression, internal or external” the level of attention she believes is required.

“I therefore request that you notify the Ministry of National Security as well as your counterparts in Guatemala of my presence on the excursion, and that the necessary measures be taken to assure the safety of all those in attendance on the visit, especially of course, the “women and children” that Minister Saldivar claims to be most concerned about,” the letter concludes.

The government of Belize has responded sharply to Senator Shoman’s announcement of her attendance of the BTV excursion on Sunday; pouring “great consternation” on the plan to join the BTV excursion on Sunday.

The government press release explains that given Senator Shoman’s role as the PUP’s representative on the bipartisan committee dealing with Guatemala’s territorial claim, if she goes on the trip on Sunday it will be an “irresponsible” decision and one designed solely for political reasons.

“Her actions further demonstrate and expose the desperation of the Opposition to use this all important and deeply emotional national issue of the Belize/Guatemala border dispute for naked political gain,” says the government statement.

Furthermore, the official release says despite her claims of going on Sunday’s trip in her capacity as a Senator and member of the National Assembly, that is not the case.

The government release says Senator Shoman does not have authorisation of the Senate to go on Sunday’s trip as a member of that body, so she will be going as a private citizen.

The government release also notes that Shoman cannot claim to be going on the trip in her capacity as a representative of the bipartisan committee.

The official press release ends by saying “the Government takes this opportunity to caution and reiterate its position that has been expressed to the Belize Territorial Volunteers that it is imprudent and potentially dangerous for the organizers of this type of excursion to expose innocent Belizeans to the risk of inadvertently entering into Guatemala territory.”

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