Could you please give me some details?
I first spent time with the Gurkhas in the early 1990s, following work as a photographer in Guatemala with a military escort prior to my layover/ R&R in British Honduras/Belize. A couple of very bright young Brit officers wanted to pick my brains about generalities- Guat troop effectiveness, morale and equipment- and were both polite and convincing. The British BRITFORBEL [BRITish FORces in BELize] detatchment of the time [circa late '70s to mid-1994] had been a necessity during the time of the Carter Administration, the Brits probably correctly expecting that the Monroe Doctrine would not be rigorously enforced...and the Guats postured and probed several times during the period.
There were several RAF units involved as well as the ground-pounders, with a couple of designitions and squadrons, but an RAF Puma helo flight and a flight of four Harrier ground attack aircraft were the most prominent- a few other types were active at various times as well. The groundpounders included one infantry and one artillery battalion with 105mm Light Guns, which provided very nice cover for repeat visits by the SAS, which may have included ops in Guatemala, about which deponent sayeth not.
There were also Kaibiles cross-border operations into Mexico in this same [early '90s] time period, chasing FAR insurgents who'd been pursued into Mexico at Cuarto Pueblo and El Petén. The resulting refugees added to a growing problem on both sides of the border, and gave the Kaibiles something better to do than pester British troops that were pretty good at shooting back.
Thanks. Were there ever any actual combat between the Guatemalans and the British/Belize forces? If so, the Guats probably were on the worse end of it. BTW, didn't the MS-13 originate in some way from the FMLN?