GUATEMALA CITY (AP) _ Guatemala ordered Belize's acting ambassador to leave Tuesday after he reportedly helped smuggle four security officers wanted by Guatemala out of the country. In the latest twist in a border dispute between the Central American neighbors, the Guatemalan Foreign Relations Ministry demanded that Belize replace Salvador Figueroa, who had been filling in for the official ambassador for the past month. In the evening, Figueroa left Guatemala.
Three soldiers and a police officer from Belize were arrested by Guatemalan officials on illegal weapons charges Feb. 24 near the Guatemala-Belize border. Each country contends the four were in its territory. They were imprisoned until a higher court ordered them released on Friday.
The court order required the contingent to remain under house arrest in the Belize Embassy until the matter could be reviewed, said Judge Marco Antonio Posadas, who drafted the order. But Figueroa reportedly defied the court order. He told Guatemala City's Siglo Veinteuno newspaper that he arranged for the men to fly to Belize City on Friday night, less than 12 hours after their conditional release.
``I don't care if there is a judicial order that they remain in Guatemala,'' the newspaper quoted him as saying. The Guatemalan government was unaware the prisoners had left the country until they saw the article Tuesday morning, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Edgar Arana. He said Figueroa violated Guatemalan law that bars diplomats from interfering in legal investigations.
Figueroa, who is also Belize's ambassador to Mexico, was named acting ambassador on Feb. 10 after Ambassador Mike Mena headed to Houston to treat an undisclosed illness.
``It seems we are breaking diplomatic relations here and that is part of the problem with the relations between the two countries,'' said Figueroa, as he boarded a plane bound for Mexico City late Tuesday. ``We have to talk directly about the problem, directly between the countries, and especially with the public.''
The Feb. 24 arrests, which followed the killing of two Guatemalans by Belizean border guards last fall, fueled tensions between the two countries over their long disputed border.