And while El Pilar is a hotspot – Chiquibul – with its vast forested area, its bounteous timber stock and its gold reserves…are a cauldron. 7News was the first media house to go embedded with the Friends for Conservation of Development in 2009 – and sound the alarm about the security and conservation issues inside the Chiquibul. Since then our teams have gone inside the Chiquibul many more than any other media house. Tonight, we look back at our first engagement in 2009 – which is a very small snapshot of how dangerous and difficult law enforcement in Chiquibul can be:…
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
"He has a machete; he has a weapon" those were the words
of the BDF as they chased down Benigno Garcia and captured him here –
600 metres from the Guatemalan border in the Caracol Archaeological Park. The
BDF caught him but the police on the patrol had the power of arrest.
Garcia was searched – while the park ranger for Friends of Conservation
and Development unloaded his 22 rifle which carried 6 live rounds. Garcia's
dogs looked around confused – while the BDF brought his makeshift knapsack
into the open area where they questioned Garcia.
Q: "What is he doing in Belize?"
A: "I am just taking a walk around."
Q: "And then they ask him – does he know if
he is in Belize"
A "The truth is I don't know – I just came
and I do not know these areas"
But what he knows to do is hunt gibnut as was amply demonstrated when he opened
his sack. A pair of gibnuts but he didn't use the gun on them, he smoked
them out of a tree bark and used the machete and bundled them for good measure
with a few xate leaves.
Still it's crime, hunting in an archaeological park, and hunting in another
country, and possessing an unlicensed firearm and ammunition which meant the
patrol had to hike him back to D' Silva Camp 8 kilometres away and they
had to move double time because they heard him talking to someone before he
was captured which means that the person who was with him could have dashed
the half a kilometre across to safety the nearby Guatemalan community and alerted
the villagers – who are hostile to Belize authorities who could have mounted
an assault on the patrol.
A very real possibility; it's happened before, but fortunately, today
they did not, or could not because we moved so fast and three hours later –
after a 6 kilometre hike Garcia was on the Carcaol Road - ready for the three
hour ride to San Ignacio Police.
Lt. Justo Velez, Officer Commanding
"This is normal, the Guatemalans always coming into Belize to do either
xate cutting, hunting, farming, and all these illegal things that they always
do. For us whenever we go to the border, whenever we encounter somebody well,
we just detain them as per procedures."
Of course, this is just one of the many violations by Guatemala within the
Caracol Reserve and the vast Chiquibul Forest – tomorrow – we'll
report from places cameras have never been deep inside Chiquibul.
And to give you a refresher or some deeper background on Chiquibul, all this week, we will be going into our archives to review some of the issues in the protected area.
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