Tonight, the Belize National Coast Guard and the Belize Defence Force are feeling perhaps slightly emboldened and empowered after they were emasculated and bullied on Belize's side of the Sarstoon on Saturday.
Here's how they held the line and did not stand down in Wednesday's Sarstoon showdown:
This was the tense situation on the Sarstoon this morning right in front of Belize's Forward Operating Base:
BDF Representative
"We have the Rear Admiral Soberanes on his safe boat along with his CSAG."
"Also, he have two other Coast Guard vessels. In front of him, he have the GAF vessel, which is one of them is commanded by Captain Arriola. And the rest are GAF vessels, approximately five vessels."
"There is approximately five to seven men in each of the GAF vessels. BDF is still on the without right here waiting for higher ups to give the orders to deploy on the water."
And they did respond-leaving six Belizean vessels on the water to Guatemala's five-which led to a delicate and tense Sarstoon standoff with military vessels from each side holding their position, with the BDF and Coast Guard combined holding the Guatemalans at bay, on this day:
Outnumbered and in some sense outmaneuvered, the Guatemalans deployed what you might call a dirty tactic-they called on civilians for backup in a military-to-military standoff:
GAF Message
"Sarstun abajo, Sarstún abajo, reportense, dicen que tiraron lanchas civiles, hay que ir a… a sacarlos. Eh, ya los compañeros alla de Cocoli, San Juan ya vienen. ¡Activense pues!"
The message calls out to the lower Sarstoon and says falsely: "Civilian boats were shot at [or targeted], we need to go… to pull them out. The guys over in Cocolà and San Juan are already on their way. Move it, then!"
That led to this showing on the river-a dangerous invitation for civilians to enter Belizean waters to tip the scales in a military standoff.
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