Belize’s Prime Minister Dean Barrow this week reassured the public that “any immediate danger has passed”. This was reference to a flare-up of tensions with neighbouring Guatemala (with which Belize has a long-running territorial dispute) after a Guatemalan minor was shot dead on Belizean territory in an incident reportedly involving the Belize Defence Force (BDF). For all Barrow’s reassurances, both sides are sticking to their version of events – the Guatemalan government led by President Jimmy Morales said that it was an act of “aggression” and the Barrow administration that it was in self-defence. With the international community calling for calm and the Organization of American States (OAS) undertaking an investigation into the incident, the flare-up of tensions was hardly a huge surprise given aggressive statements made by Morales during his 2015 electoral campaign regarding the dispute with Belize.End of preview - This article contains approximately 723 words.
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