More incursions by Guatemalan settlers

Belize and Guatemala are supposed to be engaging in confidence building measures along the common border, but a release from the Ministry of National Security indicate that illegal incursions by Guatemalan settlers are as prevalent as ever. In August a BDF patrol encountered an illegal farming settlement one kilometre inside Belize’s Chiquibul National Park. The farmers dismantled their bush houses and left. On September sixteenth soldiers discovered and destroyed two large marijuana plantations, also in the Chiquibul. Later that month in the park’s Rio Blanco area a group of Guatemalan farmers were discovered living one kilometre inside Belize. They were ordered to leave and did so. On October fourteenth in the Toledo village of Santa Rosa settlers were flying a Guatemalan flag. It was removed and confiscated by the BDF. And on Thursday, October nineteenth, a patrol encountered another group of eleven Guatemalans living in the Valentin Camp area of the Chiquibul, four hundred metres inside Belize. They were ordered to leave. According to the release, the Belize Defence Force continues to maintain an active presence in the border area. In February three BDF soldiers and one police officer patrolling the Belize side of the border were kidnapped by a larger force of Guatemalan soldiers.