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Our news team was out there from the start to the finish, and Daniel Ortiz has that story:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
Hundreds of teachers, supporters, fellow union representatives, and politicians, from all over the country, took to the Principal Streets of Belize City for BNTU's demonstration.

This was all about the Sarstoon SI, which prevents persons from going to that southern river.

And as the Parade got closer to the BTL Park, it grew, and by the time it got to our camera on Swing Bridge, it took 6 minutes to pass.

The final destination was the BTL Park, and that's where the BNTU Branch Leaders and Guest Speakers, rained fire and brimstone on the Barrow Government for stopping the free movement civilians.

Teacher 1
"We have travelled as far as the Sarstoon area, as far as the Machaquila area, as far as San Vicente from as of 2 o'clock to ensure that we are here today."

Orville Melendres, MC, Stand Up for Belize
"Honourable Sirs that care to come and tell us that we are friends with the Guatemalans. I now have it clear that they are your friends Sir. They are no friends of Belize."

Teacher 2
"Today we are here because we are not satisfied, we are here because we want to demonstrate and show the government that we are not happy with the situation at Sarstoon."

Teacher 3
"I applaud you for participating in today's Stand for Belize Rally, because we all love Belize."

Teacher 4
"Today May 13th will go down in the History books as the best teacher's day ever."

Teacher 5
"We want all those of you, especially those from Toledo who travel and enjoy the Sarstoon. We want you to enjoy it freely, so we are here to stand also for that blessed part of this nation that God gave us."

Teacher 6
"For too long we have been hearing about negotiations, meetings here and there, but I am not convinced that we are getting the desired results."

Teacher 7
"I congratulate all teachers for taking their day off to come and show solidarity to this case."

Teacher 8
"When we teach our children, we need to make sure that we prepare them to be very good Prime Ministers, we prepare them to be very good opposition leaders, we will teach them to be just very good leaders because right now I'm worried."

Hon. Elena Smith, Senator for the Labour/Civil Society
"I am so proud of all of you who are here today, all the teachers but more importantly all the Belizeans who have taken time out to come join us and celebrate with us."

Marvin Mora, President, NTUCB
"We are here not only taking a stand for Belize but we are here to tell our government that they must rescind that law which they single handily, without consultation, without following a true democratic process, went about and instituted to stop Belizean citizens from travelling all the way to the end of the borders within their own country."

Audrey Matura-Shepherd, President, CWU
"People, I don't want only the teachers to wake up, I want all of us to wake up because some of us were awake all along and we have paid a high price for being awake all along. If a handful of us, stand alone, they will attack but if all of us stand together in solidarity as you are doing today, they have a force to reckon with."

Wil Maheia, Leader, Belize Territorial Volunteers
"Before I get off this stage today, Guatemalans would have harvested just during the time I'm speaking, over a thousand pounds of shrimp, over a thousand pounds of fish and hundreds of trees from Belize's natural resources. That is one of the reasons why I decided to stand up and fight for Belize."

Evan Mose Hyde, Guest Speaker
"The reality of the situation is that the territorial volunteers with their courage have unmasked the wolf, because the wolf was trying to pretend to be a sheep. Guatemala is a wolf and is trying to put on sheep clothing. Our leaders have been playing that game, in fact they have been so out maneuvered that the wolf is telling the world that the sheep has blood on its hands. That is how badly we got out maneuvered, the wolf over there, call it what it is, don't hold back the words. That is a wolf who has taken enough lives, that is the reality of the situation."

And for the PUP Politicians who showed up, they say that they felt it important to support the teachers.

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of Opposition
"We feel that we should stand up with anybody, any group, any organization that is prepared to stand up for Belize. The teachers decided to take their day off on Teacher's Day to stand up and to bring awareness about the issues that we are facing."

Luke Palacio, National President, BNTU
"This is a manifestation of how well organized, how powerful the Belize National Teachers Union is. And we ensure that we work our constitution, we are a democratic organization, we consulted through the right channels which is our council of management which has representation from all 10 branches of the Belize National Teachers Union. They went back to their membership and they agreed that they would have supported this event. As a matter of fact, despite those who are trying to be naysayers are saying, the teachers willingly agreed that they will still celebrate teacher's day, because this afternoon we will be out here. The branches will be carrying out whatever activities they have planned and had their branch agreed to except that it is being done here in Belize City."

During the parade in the morning, we counted 690 persons who marched from Constitution Park to the BTL Park. During the rally in the park, the crowd swelled by a few hundred more.