Guatemalan Farmer Caught Illegally Farming in Belize

Tony Rath

F.C.D. has had to take up the responsibility of arresting encroachers and manning the forest to keep it from disappearing. In his article, Rath asks the question, ‘where is our B.D.F.?’  He points out that F.C.D. is not a security organization.

Tony Rath, Photographer

“For some reason, I am not quite sure why, they seem to be holding your western border on our own. We do have military at command posts but the military and this is backed up by data, the military that are staying at command post for two weeks at a time should be doing at least twelve days of patrol and they have been averaging probably twenty percent of that due to, well they put in excuse such as admin, recuperation, different excuses why they are not going on patrol. What I think what it boils down is lack of training, lack of equipment, lack of motivation and very poor morale but they are there. The military is there. They are just not patrolling and so FCD needs to patrol. I have to be a little bit careful because nobody wants to talk bad about our boys in the B.D.F.  I am not act ally talking bad about the boys of the B.D.F.  I think it goes higher than that and I was in the military and I know what you see in the ground troops reflects what is leading them.”