6 Guats Caught Going for Chiquibul Gold

Friends for Conservation and Development have reported the detention of six Guatemalan gold panners over the weekend in the area of the Ceibo Chico creek in the southern Chiquibul National Park. They face charges of illegal entry, mineral extraction without a permit and defacing a protected area. The men have been identified as thirty-eight years old Agusto Perez Gonzalez of Dolores, Petén; twenty-six years old Wilfredo Antoniel Chavez of Barrio Nuevo; eighteen year old Dimas Espana of Las Brisas; and three minors all seventeen years of age. The group was detained in the afternoon on August twelfth around three, several miles into Belizean territory. The group was escorted to the conservation post, then on foot to Millionario, from which they were transported by B.D.F. truck to be handed over to San Ignacio police on Sunday morning around eight-fifteen. Members of the patrol from the Belize Defence Force and an FCD park ranger detected human activity from the sound of voices from a camp near to the creek. They approached and saw four men inside a pit digging, with two others carrying water in small containers to sieve the earth from the pit, separating the gold deposits. Two camps were discovered with the men’s clothes, food, machetes and a homemade shotgun.