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The issue was a massive forest fire in the Peten area of Guatemala - which the Guatemalans said were caused by the Mennonite farmers on the Belize side. The Mennonites say they've got it wrong - and that they were only out there with a tractor and bulldozer trying to cut fire lines to keep the Guatemalan forest fire from coming over into their land. On Thursday afternoon, that led to a border showdown where it seems all rules of cross border engagement were broken. Today in Spanish Lookout, Roger Plett and his co-worker Manuel Ayala gave the breakdown:

Roger Plett - Farmer Detained by Guatemalans
"One person wearing civilian clothing came and started beating his machete against the side of the tractor door yelling in Spanish telling me to get out of the tractor. Mainly for the fear of my life I didn't try to run with the tractor, I climb out of the tractor. When I climb out of the tractor, the military men, men in camouflage clothing came and surrounded me. The guy in charged, he then pushed me towards the forest telling me to walk and so I started walking towards the forest towards the Guatemalan side. When we reached, a fire line that they had chopped in the forest, we walk southward. When we reached towards a patched of heavy smoke, one of the military guys shoved me on my back and said run. I didn't comply right away because I did not understand why I was supposed to run. He shoved me again in my back and he said, I said run. So I started running. When we came out of the smoke I saw there was another 15 - 20 military persons and 20 people in civilian clothing. I knew this was going to be trouble for me so I pulled out my phone and I called Manuel Ayala, my co-worker and I managed to get the call through before the guy took the phone away."

Manuel Ayala - Detained by Belizean Police
"Then in the background of the phone call I hear someone said in Spanish which means "somebody has to make themselves responsible for this thing." so I knew something was wrong at that moment."

Roger Plett - Farmer Detained by Guatemalans
"Then I heard in the background another person saying, let's tie him up and let's rough him up a little. So the guy the lighter skin guy in charged, he told the military to tie my hands behind my back. So the guy took his black robe off of his shoulder and tied my arms behind my back. So they walked me into this road and lean me against the vehicle and he started questioning me. So they stated waling me further along the road and I ask the guy, why do you have me tied up? Why are you taking me? And the guy told me, someone has to take the fault for this, someone has to be the blame for the fire. I knew if they take me away from the site I know that they will not release me. So I was thinking what could I say to have them change their mind. Well, then I came to an idea, I will tell them I'm a Canadian. I then told them, you know what I'm a Canadian and I told them that I come from Manitoba. The guy in charge, the lighter skin guy then went back to where he came from and they sat me down there. I would say, I thought it was roughly 1 hour before they came back. When the guy came back he had a complete change of heart. He said, don't worry we will release you once the bull dozer comes on this side and does the work that we want it to do. So I said alright I heard the bulldozer in the distance drive by, it went so far into the Guatemalans side I couldn't hear it anymore."

Manuel Ayala - Detained by Belizean Police
"I saw 5 soldiers rushing in towards the bulldozer and there was a guy dressed in civilian clothes. He had on a white t-shirt. The 5 soldiers came and stop the bulldozer from working, 2 of them jumped on top by the cab with the guy in civilian clothes, but I can tell you I didn't hear what they told him but I saw the movements. When I saw driver of the bulldozer, he raised back the blade of the bulldozer and swung around and went into Guatemala.

Roger Plett - Farmer Detained by Guatemalans
"I can hear also in the distance that they were bringing my tractor into Guatemalan side. So after the guy told me that after the bulldozer will do its work and so it was more than half an hour when he came back again. He then untied me. When I reached the tractor, they started taking pictures of me getting back into the tractor, but I personally believed they wanted the tractor to stay there. They thought the tractor was too damaged for me to bring it back out because I saw that the front left tire was completely off of the rim, the steps were bend back against the tractor tyre, my sprayer tank with the water in the back, they had broken that. It's all bent. A couple pieces are broken off. when I climb into the tractor I see that the steering wheel was broken and hanging to one side, but then they told me alright you can go now, leave but, the tracker as damaged as it was I didn't know how I was going to bring it out. But since I know my equipment very good, I brought the tractor out steering the tractor with the breaks. When I reached back I found out that they still have the dozer driver working for them on their side."

Manuel Ayala - Detained by Belizean Police
"I called Rogelio and I said to him, what happened? He replied and said, the military has me hold up. I asked him, how many of them? He said 14."

Roger Plett - Farmer Detained by Guatemalans
"Then he was bringing the bulldozer out and the bulldozer driver told me later that they were following, walking along being the bulldozer and when he started to steer the bulldozer into the Belizean side, they started to run after him. To escape them, He drive the bulldozer through the big fire and they couldn't follow him through the fire."

So they got back the bulldozer and the damaged tractor - and the next step was going to the Belize police to make a report that they had been taken form Belize into Guatemala along with their equipment. They have to do that because they work every day in that area - and the very alarming border incident cannot go unreported. But what should have been a straightforward police report, turned into something very different. Here's their explanation:

Roger Plett, Farmer detained Guatemalans
"When we went in to the police station to give the report, I started telling him my story and after a while the guy was taking my story - he went out of the room. I waited a good while there and when he came back in, it's like he didn't wanted to hear my story anymore and he had first had put on my statement "Guatemalan military men", but he changed all of that and he changed it to men in camouflage uniform. And the whole time after that he was questioning me, he was trying to twist the story, trying to make me change the story."

Manuel Ayala, detained by Belizean police
"After we made the statement and everything was okay, I was waiting to come out and they say you are not going. I ask why. They say "mischievous act." I said what. In this situation how could we play a role, when this is an international issue. We cannot put ourselves and others in danger in this thing as they called a "mischievous act." That's not a mischievous act."

Roger Plett, Farmer detained Guatemalans
"They told me that they could have set this whole thing up. I told them that is not true. They said that they have all the information in this cell phone here. We took it from Manuel Ayala. I ask them to show me the messages please. So they took the phone and they started reading the messages and all the messages they read clearly says exactly what happened there what I had told them was the truth. But somehow they were saying that these messages prove that this is all a fabrication by us, that none of this actually happened. So from there I told them that you guys are cowards, you guys are scared of the Guatemalans, that is why you want to sweep this under the rug as it never happens."

Manuel Ayala, detained by Belizean police
"The next day they said, they start over again. I explained to them the same thing. So in the evening I was about to be released and they say no you are not going home. They say Rosado say you are detained. For what? So the issue from borderline change to bio-farm and I said but how? I'm not involved in anything like that, but anyway they say I will be detained - I am not resisting arrest. What I faced there is not something easy for me. I was embarrassed, my reputation went down because other people like 'hey you what Manuel is a criminal.' I'm not afraid to speak out."

Ayala was detained for 48 hours and released on Sunday. We tried to speak to Cayo officer commanding Superintendent Richard Rosado to get his comment, but he was unavailable when we travelled to Cayo a few hours ago.