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Last week Friday, it made major news when the Guatemalan Naval patrol got into a confrontation on Sarstoon Island with the Belize Coast Guard.

As we told you, the Coast Guard patrol was on the island doing reconnaissance when the Guatemalan patrol accused the Coast Guard officers of being within Guatemalan Territory. As we told you, the island is considered to be squarely in Belizean territory, and so the Coast Guard officers stood their ground twice when the Guatemalan officers returned. In the second confrontation, the Guatemalans suggested to the Belizean officers that they don't want any trouble, and that the Coast Guard officers should leave the area.

So, what actually happened? That's what we got a chance to ask the Deputy Commandant of the Coast Guard, and he confirmed that his officers did not retreat, nor were they ordered to retreat:

Commander Elton Bennett – Vice Commandant, Coast Guard

"We were given a mission to conduct a recognisance including recognisance on the island, that was accomplished. We were given an order to extract after that recognisance was completed. So the mission as it related to the recognisance, that was completed. To start with that, we were not given an order to withdraw. We extracted under the conditions that the national security ministry along with foreign affairs would continue to dialogue with the Guatemalan counterparts to deal with that issue."

Reporter

"Isn't that just a technical or a word difference that you're using here?"

Commander Elton Bennett

"No, there's a difference. Withdraw or retreat you do so as a coward, the coast guard with no withdraw or retreat. The coast guard held it's grown and after the mission was completed it then extracted from that location to another location."

Belize has since filed a diplomatic protest in connection with the incident.

As we told you, the Guatemalans have a naval base at the banks of the Sarstoon River. As you also heard in the interview, the Coast Guard has plans to build a Forward Operating Base at Sarstoon Island, the same location that the Guatemalan Naval officers tried to get to leave. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic plays out once that base begins construction, and the Coast Guard starts to operate from that location.