“The Coast Guard was conducting an operation in our southern waters as we frequently do. We were conducting a patrol from Hunting Caye which is the farthest island in the south. We were patrolling that location towards the Sarstoon which is a territorial integrity patrol from time to time to guarantee the Belizean sovereignty over our sea spaces. Whilst on that operation, we encountered a few gillnets in the area of Corona Reef. That is perhaps about six miles from the south of Hunting Caye. We recovered eight gillnets on that operation, so it was a very tedious operation. Whilst conducting that operation, the rangers from TIDE who were stationed at Hunting Caye also arrived on the scene and we placed some personnel on their vessel so that we can cover as much ground as possible, in order to recover those gillnets that were placed inside Belizean waters. We had two vessels out at that location, one belonging to TIDE and the other one was a Belize Coast Guard vessel. We separated and we started to recover these gillnets that are very damaging to our marine ecosystem and marine environment. At some point, the vessel that belonged to TIDE where we had two coast guard personnel onboard and they were pursuing what appeared to be a Guatemalan fishing vessel. The two personnel onboard that vessel reported that after the Guatemalan vessel had departed Belizean waters and entered into Guatemalan waters, our vessel stopped short. We did not go into Guatemalan waters, we stopped short at that location and at that point, the Guatemalan fishing vessel fired what we believe were gunshots, not in our direction, or not in a direct confrontational manner, but in a threatening manner indeed at that location.”