In a boxing match, a wise fighter will usually take some time to “feel out” his opponent, before “going for the knockout”; because, as any observant person will recall, on many occasions a reckless aggressor has been floored by an opponent who has only one weapon, a big punch. Even “The Greatest”, Muhammad Ali never rushed wildly into an opponent, however much he believed he had an advantage in speed and/or skills. It’s an old story: “fools rush in”.

Even more so, in any contest or challenge, in sports and/or life, when one perceives he has a decided shortcoming in a particular area, great restraint will be the advisable approach, until such disadvantage can be nullified or relatively neutralized by developing one’s strength in another area.

Some are inclined to say, and with some justification, especially in sports, that the best defense is a strong offense. If a team has immense “firepower”, their opponent will be forced to “be on their heels” in the face of their powerful attack, and thus, they argue, the attacking team will have less to worry about the weakness of their own defense. But, it is nevertheless true that the records consistently show that the team that emerges as champions invariably, if not always, has a very strong defense. Thus, it is often said that offense wins games, but defense wins championships, and the goalkeeper is a critical part of that defense. All the efforts and talent of other defenders might be wasted by the failure of a leaky goalkeeper. Whichever way you look at it, defense is a must in any sport; and it is the same with a nation.

All the natural resources, good climate and talent of the people, could still end up in chaos and strife, if the nation is not defended against massive intrusion from outside by criminal elements bent on plundering the “wealth untold” of the nation and triggering a breakdown of “law and order” by targeted violence and killing of innocent citizens. A peaceful and thriving oasis of freedom, could quickly become an area of terror and mass upheaval, if the national defense fell apart and the society was reduced to “every man for himself” against the forces of destruction and exploitation from outside and also from within.

In this context, though many Belizeans routinely take the existence of our Belize Defence Force (BDF) for granted, their presence and preparedness to address the safety of our Belizean citizenry against any aggression from outside forces is absolutely essential, and should never be overlooked.

There are questions about the performance of our BDF in dealing with intrusions of Guatemalan citizens across our western border; and recent remarks from our Brigadier General have confirmed what many of us long suspected. During the tenure of the British Forces in Belize, it was an established practice for the Belize-Guatemala western border to be patrolled “24/7”, with soldiers assigned to different sections of the border, and a rotation system in place for their deployment. Except for the village of Arenal, a unique village with a history of spanning both borders, we never heard of any significant problem of Guatemalan encampments inside Belizean territory while the British were here.

Guatemala’s GAF (Guatemalan Armed Forces) was no match for the British military, and any upsurge in their rhetoric or threatening movements near our western border was quickly put “under manners” by a visit from one of “Her Majesty’s” naval vessels in the area, or a fly-past of a couple of their Harrier fighter jets. But, with Belize’s Independence in 1981, a lot may have changed.

The Belizean political directorate, who make the calls on the deployment of our soldiers, has never explained to our people what is their approach to the patrolling of our western border. Apparently, either since Independence, or since the British officially ended their “defense commitment” to Belize in 1993, our western border has not been patrolled with the energy and vigilance that used to be applied by the British. No less than retired BDF Captain, Charlie Good once declared, while maligning both PUP and UDP governments on their delinquency on the matter, that, given a few dozen men, he could easily supervise the effective patrolling 24/7 of our western border, as he had firsthand experience in the matter under the British. We have the trained soldiers employed in the BDF; it is just the political will to deploy them effectively to protect our border. But Charlie Good was ignored and ridiculed. Now we have been hearing of pastures and big cement structures, and survey lines being laid down, as if major moves are being taken by Guatemalan intruders to take over land in our precious forest reserve areas of Chiquibul and Colombia. Still, there has been no declared plan by our political leaders to effectively patrol our western border.

Skeptical Belizean citizens saw through the “Adjacency Zone” agreement from Day One; but our then Foreign Minister had long explanations about the strategy behind the “Confidence Building Measures”. Now, our Brigadier General Loria has admitted plainly that our BDF is often restricted from taking decisive action against Guatemalan intruders who are plundering our forest reserves, because of the “protocol” we signed on to in those “Confidence Building Measures” that limit any action by the BDF inside the “Adjacency Zone” until matters have been verified with the OAS and the green light is given. Effectively, then, because of the blatant disregard by the GAF to follow the same “protocol” inside their “Adjacency Zone,” and the deliberate foot-dragging by the OAS (it takes sometimes months for a response, according to Loria), the effect has been an almost free-for-all for Guatemalan intruders inside the borderline forest reserves. Thus, we have pastures, buildings, roads and even bridges, and it is clear from the evidence on the ground that precious hardwood trees are being cut and hauled out by those who are involved in these incursions. Effectively, our brilliant political negotiators have opened the door to our neighbors to plunder the natural resources of Belize, even while our own forest rangers are doing their best to preserve what is left of our precious national forest reserves.

Nevertheless, restraint has been the tactic of our BDF in all encounters with the GAF. Although in the Sarstoon, the GAF has continued to be aggressive towards our soldiers and our Belize Territorial Volunteers when inside the Sarstoon River, claiming that the whole river is theirs, our Brigadier General has maintained his composure and calm, essentially expressing firm but gentle disagreement with the position of the GAF officers. Physical confrontation has thus been avoided, and that is the way it should be. In the meantime, Belize and Guatemala have a date fast approaching for decisions at the ICJ. A recent video circulating on social media shows some Guatemalan citizens chanting and proclaiming their traditional rhetoric, “Belice es nuestro!”, as if to provoke Belizeans into any kind of emotional response that could be construed as belligerent or incendiary.

Restraint is the order of the day for our Belizean soldiers on the ground while matters are being dealt with at the ICJ. As a nation we have been patient and composed, but that does not mean we should ever “let our guards down”. In their own way, the Belize Territorial Volunteers are representing the Belizean people’s assertion of their rights to all our territory in a peaceful and patriotic manner, as much as our “loving” neighbors are eager to chant “Belice es nuestro”. But, in the meantime, wise diplomacy demands firm representation from our political leaders in the international arena to call out the illegal trespassing and aggressive behavior of the GAF in the Sarstoon and their failure to uphold their side of the Confidence Building Measures along our western border or “Adjacency Line”.