Guatemalan Lawyer Challenges Guatemalan Government’s Denial of Belize Airspace Flight

Guatemalan lawyer Rudel Alvarez is challenging his government’s denial that a military aircraft entered Belizean airspace. In a written post on his verified Facebook account, Alvarez said he believes the flight happened and pointed to tracking information from Flight Radar to support his position.  Alvarez shared a video showing an aircraft’s route near Belize’s offshore islands. He says it entered airspace over Belize’s territorial waters, circled for about forty minutes, then switched off its transponder before returning to Guatemala. He accused the military of misleading President Bernardo Arévalo and urged the president to make changes within the institution. At a press conference yesterday, Arévalo maintained that the reported flight did not happen. He said Guatemala had made the aircraft available to the Organization of American States for a review of its flight records. 

Bernardo Arévalo, Guatemalan President: “We are surprised that he brought up this topic in his speech at the general assembly at the United Nations and the right to answer was used which is established in the procedure rules for the assembly to be able to give an answer. There has not been any flights as indicated. We in any case have made available to the Organization of American States the plane that has been indicated as the one that was supposedly would have been involved in that center to come and check their records, because those records that are recorded are the ones that show what the route is, etc. We are very calm because fortunately we have a permanent international monitoring mechanism. In fact, the Organization of American States has an office in that area of adjacency between Guatemala and Belize, whose function is precisely to facilitate contact between the two countries, and above all to observe the situations that are generated in this area of adjacency.”

That denial stands against Belize’s account. Defence CEO Francis Usher says officials tracked the aircraft in Belizean airspace for one hour and ten minutes and continued following it on primary radar after its transponder stopped transmitting. Attorney Alvarez’s post also took aim at Belize’s response. He argued that authorities should show the same concern about illegal flights carrying illicit cargo.