Guatemalans have sent a diplomatic note urging the Belizean government to intervene and stop Will Maheia and his Belize Territorial Volunteers from commencing with their project called "Clearing Our Borderline". It starts in Jalacte which is an area we visited with Maheia in 2008. At the time there was a dispute about a warehouse which a Guatemalan businessman had placed in Belizean territory. It took months to get that removed - even though it was squarely in Belizean territory. The businessman was form Santa Cruz Guatemala which is the Guatemalan village adjoining Jalacte in Belize. Through commerce and daily life, they are like sister villages, and they have established a much used - though unregulated border crossing. When we went there, we found out how difficult it is to two the border line. Tonight we repeat only a small excerpt of that story that noted the contrasts and the similarities between Jalacte Belize and Santa Cruz Guatemala.

Unlike Jalacte, it has electricity and Belizean shoppers come here for Gallo beers, and cheap products. The village - or most of it - is in Guatemalan territory - the cemetery for example is believed to be inside Belizean territory. But it's a fine, widely unknown line, and the entire village exists under the eye of the BDF treetops observation post - the sole indicator of Belize's domain in the area.

It is ground they are holding in hostile territory, the Guatemalans resent the military's presence, and after taping for few minutes it was made clear to us by a group of village leaders that our presence was also not welcome.

Back in Jalacte and after recovering from the grueling trek back under the midday sun, I considered this village, a small trading outpost, its jarring juxtapositions between of Guatemalan and Belizean branding, the commanding Guatemalan phone tower on the borderline, the fact that my phone had switched over from Telemedia to service from the Guatemalan phone company TIGO, which is the only phone service this and surrounding villages get - where by the way, they offer triple-up, not double up as we found out when this young Jalacte woman was putting in credits for her Guatemalan phone.

And moving as freely as phone signals, everyday the BDF looks on as scores of Belizeans and Guatemalans go back and forth between Jalacte and Santa Cruz. Their job is to hold the line - a line not marked in any way, a line whose true location is known only to technicians who use GPS devices, a line that is a good few hundred feet west of, behind this structure. It is either a matter for grave concern, or earnest hope.

Edgar Savedra,
"We live as a community in friendship. That is why we don't have any problems, we live in peace."

Wil Maheia,
"Every year Belize gets smaller and smaller because the road that we just came on, that is clearly inside Belizean territory and the people living there are Guatemalans. They think they are living inside of Guatemala, yet they are living on Belizean territory."

Ferdie's Brother,
"Belizeans with Guatemala, we are friendship. We and Belize, we are friends but I don't know what the people think and someday we argue with Belize but I don't know why. I just only want to ask that question, I want to ask somebody: why they noh come friends."

And how the technicians, politicians and diplomats deal with this illegal encroachment will largely determine what happens at the official level - but at the ground level, we suspect the free movement and informal trade will continue because these are neighbors and no policy or referendum can dictate their co-existence.

Maheia says he and his volunteers with their 100 machetes plan to start their clear the border drive in Jalacte at 8:00 am on Saturday. We imagine that would bring them right into the path of that cemetery we showed you in that story.

Guatemalans Object To Maheia's Border Clearing Effort

On February fourth, we told you about Will Maheia's dramatic drive to cut the line along entire border. Here's how he explained it then:..

Wil Maheia - PNP
"One of the things that we will be starting in 3 weeks' time - we have secured 100 machetes. We will begin to clear the border lines ourselves, just like when we started to place the flag it was one of us; two of us. Rufus when you went down there maybe it was 6-10 of us, now its bus loads. We will start to clear that borderline by had with machetes - one machete at a time and we will start from Gracias Adios, up the Sarstoon River and we will begin chopping and we will chop and chop until we get up to the Chiquibul and Caracol. I don't know how long it's going to take but in a couple of weeks we will start chopping along the borderline."

Now the date for the event has been set. It starts on Sunday March 2nd, when Maheia's group called the Belize Territorial Volunteers will begin a project called "Clearing Our Borderline."

A release from Maheia sent earlier this week says quote, "Over the past thirty years our borders have been neglected and as a result, several incursions have occurred into our beautiful, sovereign country. Guatemalans have come into the villages and pillaged people's farms and stolen their horses." It adds, "Our mission is simple, we exist to educate our people as to the reality of our Western border and to maintain a watchful eye, to ensure that Belize's territorial sovereignty is never called into question. " Today Maheia told us that he's gotten many calls from volunteers wanting to assist in the project. But he's also getting pushback. 7news has learned that Maheia has gotten a call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking him to cancel the effort. That's because the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent Belize a diplomatic note warning that such an effort will create friction between the two nations and could force them to take it up with the OAS. We spoke with the Minister of foreign Affairs this evening and he made it clear that he is very opposed to the effort. He told us the problem is, quote, "Nobody knows where the border is ." End quote. Elrington added that whenever there is a border incident, the government has to go to a geographic institute to in South America to make a determination. Speaking of Maheia's group, he warned quote, "they could well find themselves arrested by the Guatemalans because there are no clear boundaries (along much of the border).

HE added quote, "they don't know what they are doing." He noted that when a boundary is being fixed usually a proper surveying team goes out to make a precise determination. He closed ominously, quote, "they will only cause an international incident and likely end up all in jail" end quote.

It's a developing story, but when we spoke to Maheia this evening, he told us he has not intention to cancel the effort.

Channel 7