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Two weeks ago, all the headlines were about that ugly encounter on the Sarstoon.  The Guatemalan military tried to stop the Belize Territorial Volunteers and SATIIM from going up the river to Black Creek.  They were going to recover some illegally harvested timber after poachers - most likely Guatemalan - had illegally cut down Santa Maria trees in the Sarstoon Temash National Park.   

But, the Guatemalan military tried to harass and intimidate them, and only backed off slightly when the BDF vessel appeared.  In the end, though, the mission was never accomplished because the BDF escort vessel broke down and the Territorial Volunteers’ vessel - known as “Binkyâ€￾ - had to haul back the BDF vessel to its forward operating base.  

That day surely ended in embarrassment, but there was no shame on Saturday when the BDF spearheaded a new mission and took the SATIIM crew to Black Creek to retrieve the timber.  Froyla Tzalam, the executive Director of SATIIM told us that the trip was successful and proceeded without any interference from the Guatemalans.  

She says the only difficulty they had was recovering all the timber - and in the end they had to burn some which they could not bring.  We hope to have pictures of this tomorrow.

We note that the BDF alone led this mission and Will Maheia’s vessel, the Binky - which is like a red flag to the bullish Guatemalan military -  was not involved.