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On the topic of increased security – the Joint Forward Operating Base will provide just that at the mouth of the Sarstoon River. As we told you, there was a ground breaking ceremony a week ago and construction is expected to begin as early as next week. While it's a historic event for Belize, what are the Guatemalans saying about it and will there be any contention between Belize's military forces and theirs? Today General Jones told us there shouldn't be any issues because both countries will work together to maintain peace and order at the Sarstoon.

Brig. Gen. David Jones - Commander, BDF

"We intend for construction to start as soon as possible. We've identified a contractor. It hasn't been finalized yet who is going to do the construction that will be finally decided by the government. But we expect construction to start very soon, probably by next week if possible. When start, it should be within 3 months, so probably by the end of February, we should have that base maned. The base is for the Belize Defence Force and we will also invite the coast guard to jointly work there with us but it's a BDF initiative and we intend to do our patrolling in that area; hopefully working jointly with the Guatemalan base which is just on the other side of the river. That protocol needs to be established and agreed upon by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by Ministry of National Security. So we're hoping that dialogue could start so that we could have a similar protocol we have with the Western Border, to have a similar protocol with the Sarstoon river, jointly with the Guatemalan armed forces."

"The discussion I had with the Guatemalans, there isn't any huge concern. I think there is one concern for the villagers there because they do a lot of fishing in the area and they are concerned that we will interrupt the livelihood of the fishers in that area. But as long as they clearly understand that the base is going to be there, it's going to maned by our security forces and we're going to enforce Belizean laws there. So as long as the people abide by Belizean law, they won't have an issue. If they do their fishing or their activities in their part of the territory, they'll be fined but as long as they come over to Belize then they will be under Belizean jurisdictions, we will enforce laws that occur in that area once that forward operating base is established."