For 15 consecutive years, Wil Maheia has made the same journey every September: loading up his boats and steering toward a disputed stretch of the Sarstoon River, the contested border between Belize and Guatemala. And just as consistently, the Belizean government has attempted to dissuade him and his group from making the trip. This year is no exception – but the long-running standoff has taken an unexpected turn ahead of the 2026 journey.
Maheia leads the Belize Territorial Volunteers (BTV), a grassroots group that organizes an annual patriotic pilgrimage to the Sarstoon River every September, coinciding with Belize’s national independence celebrations. The trip has a history of sparking tense confrontations: in previous years, encounters have unfolded between BTV members, Belize’s own national security forces, and Guatemalan patrols operating in the long-disputed border zone.
This year, official warnings came earlier than usual. Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a public caution alerting citizens to the inherent safety risks of traveling into the contested territory. But for Maheia, who has navigated this annual pushback for more than a decade and a half, the early warning was nothing new – and far from unexpected.
“Every year we face pushback,” Maheia noted in comments ahead of Thursday’s planned trip. “For over fifteen years we have been going there, and the pushback varies in intensity from year to year. This year’s pushback wasn’t really necessary, but we always expected it would come.”
To Maheia, the government’s warning is not a genuine act of concern for citizen safety, but a deliberate attempt to discourage Belizeans from asserting sovereignty over their own territorial border. Rather than backing down in the face of official pressure, he has leaned into the timing of the trip, framing it as a core expression of national independence.
“Our entire goal is to travel to the Sarstoon peacefully as proud Belizeans, and that is entirely in the spirit of our independence,” he explained. “This is our independence month, and we are here to show all Belize where our country’s borders lie. That is all we plan to do: go there, mark our border, and celebrate our nation.”
In a surprising twist, however, the official pushback that Maheia has criticized for years has ultimately worked in the group’s favor. In the days leading up to the planned pilgrimage, BTV opened direct channels of communication with two of Belize’s key national security bodies: the Belize Defence Force and the Belize Coast Guard. During those discussions, the group laid out every detail of their planned route and activities on the river.
Far from rejecting the plan, security officials accepted BTV’s outlined itinerary, clearing the way for what Maheia says will be a peaceful, uneventful journey.
“I actually think the Ministry’s pushback ended up working out well for everyone,” Maheia said. “Because in the end, it opened the door for dialogue with BDF personnel and the Coast Guard. We laid out our plan clearly, they accepted it, and now tomorrow is going to be a great day. We are heading to the Sarstoon, we will go to the forward operating base, and we will make it clear to every Belizean that our border starts at the Sarstoon.”
Maheia reaffirmed that the group’s core plans have not changed despite the months of back and forth with officials. He stressed that a strict no-weapons policy remains in place for all participants, no exceptions, and the entire event will remain entirely peaceful, focused solely on patriotic assertion of Belizean territorial sovereignty.