Clearing the border with Belizean Territorial Volunteers

At the end of February the Belize Territorial Volunteers, led by Wil Maheia, travelled from the village of Jalacte in the deep-south to the border with the Guatemalan village of Santa Cruz. That expedition was without incident, and buoyed on that success, and on an undeniable sentiment of patriotism, the group headed back to the border this weekend. This time the base of the expedition was Dolores, a small but densely populated village just past Otoxha, and from there the group intended to travel to two distinct border markers and to make good on their commitment to clear the border. So how did that go? Well, with the help of our colleagues at PGTV, freelance reporter Mike Rudon found out.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

The second expedition of the Belize Territorial Volunteers to the border between Belize and Guatemala lacked some of the media pomp and glamour which surrounded the first, but it lacked nothing in spirit, determination and patriotism. The group of about seventy-five persons from every corner of the country headed out of Punta Gorda at four am and rendezvoused at the small village of Dolores. From there the group made off on foot for the first of two selected border markers. They intended to chop thick forest, but found none to chop. This is what they found instead – a large farm and road right up against the border.

Wil Maheia

Wil Maheia, Belize Territorial Volunteers

“The Belize government shows signs of weakness because look at the amount of building. And you can see it is recent building. According to the so called compromis, there shouldn’t be no development in the adjacency zone, so called adjacency zone. And that is why I believe that we must accept an adjacency zone. We should demarcate our border, we should man our border, we should occupy our border and then if we will have to work with the people of Dolores and Otoxha and all those along the border to lands and farms along the border like they do; then that is what we need to do.”

And while the mission was to clear the border, Maheia says that the fact that the Guatemalans have already cleared the border line is cause for great concern.

Via Phone: Wil Maheia

“Then we decide to move north. So we moved north from where we are along the border line and the more we moved north, the more we found clearings. We found huge corn plantations. And then after huge corn plantations, we had some forests that we had to go through. So we made a trail through that forest and before we knew it, we were again in open pastures. So really and truly, we didn’t have to clear a lot to get to accomplish our mission because the Guatemalans had already done it for us. But while doing that, we also encountered that Guatemalan have put their farms inside Belize’s territory. And that is concern for us as Belizeans, as Belize Territorial Volunteers, we are concerned about Belize and abut our borders and we want to stop these incursions.”

Mike Rudon

“Wil, you talked about the pastures that you met, you talked about corn fields that you walked through. Are you talking about Belizean corn fields or Guatemalan corn fields in Belizean territory?”

Via Phone: Wil Maheia

“No these are Guatemalan corn fields in Belizean territory and Guatemalan pastures in Belizean territory.”

On this expedition the group ended up visiting two border markers outside of Dolores, but there was no need for any clearing. So what’s next for this determined group?

Via Phone: Wil Maheia

“On the thirtieth of April was when England and Guatemala agreed on those markers and where the Belize border would be; that was signed on the thirtieth of April 1859 and to commemorate that signing, we intend to go to the three border markers that was put down and agreed to by both Guatemala and England and we will plant thirty mahogany trees at each one of those border markers. In Cayo, Garbutt Falls, Nancy Marin is coordinating that event, in the north, Orlando de la Fuente is coordinating that event and in the south, I am coordinating that one in the south.”

Mike Rudon for News Five.