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Wil Maheia - PNP
"One of the things that we will be starting in 3 weeks' time - we have secured 100 machetes. We will begin to clear the border lines ourselves, just like when we started to place the flag it was one of us; two of us. Rufus when you went down there maybe it was 6-10 of us, now its bus loads. We will start to clear that borderline by had with machetes - one machete at a time and we will start from Gracias Adios, up the Sarstoon River and we will begin chopping and we will chop and chop until we get up to the Chiquibul and Caracol. I don't know how long it's going to take but in a couple of weeks we will start chopping along the borderline."

Now the date for the event has been set. It starts on Sunday March 2nd, when Maheia's group called the Belize Territorial Volunteers will begin a project called "Clearing Our Borderline."

A release from Maheia sent earlier this week says quote, "Over the past thirty years our borders have been neglected and as a result, several incursions have occurred into our beautiful, sovereign country. Guatemalans have come into the villages and pillaged people's farms and stolen their horses." It adds, "Our mission is simple, we exist to educate our people as to the reality of our Western border and to maintain a watchful eye, to ensure that Belize's territorial sovereignty is never called into question. " Today Maheia told us that he's gotten many calls from volunteers wanting to assist in the project. But he's also getting pushback. 7news has learned that Maheia has gotten a call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking him to cancel the effort. That's because the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent Belize a diplomatic note warning that such an effort will create friction between the two nations and could force them to take it up with the OAS. We spoke with the Minister of foreign Affairs this evening and he made it clear that he is very opposed to the effort. He told us the problem is, quote, "Nobody knows where the border is ." End quote. Elrington added that whenever there is a border incident, the government has to go to a geographic institute to in South America to make a determination. Speaking of Maheia's group, he warned quote, "they could well find themselves arrested by the Guatemalans because there are no clear boundaries (along much of the border).

HE added quote, "they don't know what they are doing." He noted that when a boundary is being fixed usually a proper surveying team goes out to make a precise determination. He closed ominously, quote, "they will only cause an international incident and likely end up all in jail" end quote.

It's a developing story, but when we spoke to Maheia this evening, he told us he has not intention to cancel the effort.