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For years, SATIIM were the co-managers of the Sarstoon Temash National Park up until July 2013 when their contract expired and the Government didn't renew it. Since then, the park has been in a sort of limbo, with no official presence there to deter illegal activities such as fishing and logging. SATIIM, as you will remember, took on the moral duty to police it even though the Government did not sanction their continued assistance to keep the natural reserve in good care.

This evening, just before the start of news, we spoke via skype with SATIIM Director Froyla Tzlam about the allegedly aggressive confrontation her rangers had with the Guatemalan military on one of their patrols:

Froyla Tzalam - Executive Director, Satiim

"Well actually the patrol went out on Monday from Punta Gorda and yesterday one of the areas they wanted to visit was the Sarstoon. When they travelled up river, they stopped at the BDF base and informed them of their patrol up river and they were granted permission and moved up ahead. Upon their exit from this particular area, they encountered Guatemalan military waiting for them on the southern side of the Sarstoon and they continued making their way towards the mouth of the Sarstoon and the boat followed them and basically stopped them. During that encounter several things happened, one the boat was very aggressive towards the Satiim vessell, it bumped into them and secondly the person in charge was very confrontational with the Satiim patrol saying in Spanish something to the effect because none of by guys speak Spanish; something to the effect that there is a new protocol in place and that protocol was apparently that all people travelling along the Sarstoon must first of all go to the Guatemalan base at the mouth of the Sarstoon. Now for us this was new because we have been monitoring activities along the Sarstoon for over 10 years and at no point during that time were we ever encountered had to relay whatever shape or form to the Guatemalan military and so yesterday was the first time that happened. We were quite surprised by that, we had also conducted a patrol in February and there was no incident, we went about our business as usual but yesterday was different and I guess it was the aggression that was expressed towards the team and now this new apparently protocol which Satiim was completely unaware of."

SATIIM tells us that the Mayan villages which are in the vicinity of the Sarstoon Temash National Park report that they've encountered illegal fishing and logging in the reserve, which is why they continue to patrol the rivers of both the Sarstoon and Temash to try to deter such illegal activities. Of course, even though they've done it for years, they are simply civilians now caught up in the Sarstoon Flashpoint of the Belize Guatemala Territorial Dispute. The Former Minister, Lisel Alamilla reminds us that they have no legal authority to police the area.