Police say they are investigating a report in which a member of the Belize Defense Force (BDF) was shot and hospitalised following an incident at the Valentin Conservation Post along the Belize-Guatemala border.
Police Commissioner Chester Williams said that the incident occurred last Saturday and that the soldier was shot in the buttocks. He said the BDF and police investigators are carrying out the probe.
Media reports here said that the Belizean and Guatemalan authorities have since launched a joint investigation in an effort to determine who fired the shot.
The two countries are involved in a territorial dispute with the matter now before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In 1839, after the United Provinces of Central America was dissolved, Guatemala claimed sovereignty over Belize as an “inheritance” from Spain, a claim rejected by the British because neither Spain nor any Central American entity had ever occupied Belizean territory.
