3 Guatemalan Farmers Arrested in Cebada

In western Belize, three Guatemalan farmers were detained on Saturday while they were six hundred meters inside the Chiquibul National Park. The trio was handed over to San Ignacio police the following day on Sunday. Forty-three-year-old Mario Ramos Hernandez, forty-two-year-old Neftali Hernandez, and twenty-four-year-old Levi Felipe Reymundo, all from the Peten Area in Guatemalan, were arrested during a patrol conducted by B.D.F. and F.C.D. rangers in the Cebada area of the Chiquibul. The men were in civilian clothing, working on an agricultural field. According to F.C.D., the landscape of this fraction of the Chiquibul forest has been altered by Guatemalan farmers who have cleared large areas for planting. The men had crocus bags filled with corn. They are facing charges of illegal entry and illegal farming in the Chiquibul National Park.  The area of Cebada has steadily been used by Guatemalan nationals for agricultural farming and cattle ranching. For years it has been a hotspot due to the forest degradation occurring in the region.