The Sarstoon River () is a Central American

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

that forms part of the international border between

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

and

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. The source of the 111-kilometer-long river lies in Guatemala's

Alta Verapaz Alta Verapaz () is a department in the north central part of Guatemala. The capital and chief city of the department is Cobán. Verapaz is bordered to the north by El Petén, to the east by Izabal, to the south by Zacapa, El Progreso, and ...

Department. It flows eastward, serving as the border between the

departments Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of Petén and Izabal before passing between Belize's Toledo District (to the north) and Guatemala's Izabal Department (to the south) on its way to the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. Near its mouth lies Sarstoon Island, in Belizean territory. The Sarstoon is the internationally accepted southern border between Belize and Guatemala, although as part of the Belizean–Guatemalan territorial dispute since 1999 Guatemala has claimed Belizean territory south of the Sibun River. On 15 April 2019, the river was the site of a border incident between Guatemala and Belize, when three Guatemalan gun-boats crewed by armed soldiers prevented the Belizean coast guard from patrolling the river.

References

Rivers of Belize Rivers of Guatemala International rivers of North America Belize–Guatemala border Toledo District Border rivers {{Guatemala-river-stub

See also

References