Marijuana growers fire at BDF, man killed
In October News Five accompanied a BDF police patrol about eight miles from the Caracol Ruins near the Guatemalan border as they went to destroy marijuana plantations. On this trip we were told the area is considered dangerous and that the soldier often encounter illegal marijuana cultivators, who are sometimes armed. On Tuesday one of these routine search and destroy marijuana missions in an area known as Sapote Camp met a party of armed men they say opened fire on them. They returned fire and a man went down, fatally wounded. According to the Ministry of National Security and Immigration, the matter will be handled internally.
Alan Usher, Permanent Secretary, Min. of National Security
?The patrol encountered a group of armed civilians that fired at the patrol, it was the third such incident over the past three months and they were sufficiently close to have considered that their lives were in danger and fire was returned.?
Janelle Chanona
What happened next?
Alan Usher
?What happened next as we say in the report, one person was hit, the rest of the armed people went away, the person that was hit was recovered and he was taken a short distance until the patrol observed more people coming and decided to leave the person where he was and then withdrew to avoid further confrontation.?
?For our purposes, we are looking at this entirely as an internal matter for which Belize has to deal with it. It occurred in excess of a mile from the border.?
The exact location of the incident is about eight miles southwest from the Mayan ruin of Caracol, an area has been flagged by the BDF as a major hotspot for illegal activity, including marijuana cultivation. Usher says large quantities of weed were found in the area last year.
Alan Usher
?Within that immediate area, as far as Retiro and the Caracol reserve itself, there’s been a considerable amount of marijuana destroyed over the recent years. And if I could refer to my notes here, we’ve had during 1999, Thirty-two and a half pounds marijuana seeds, marijuana seedlings, fifty-three thousand marijuana seedlings, mature plants, nine thousand four hundred thirty-eight mature plants and compressed, actually processed marijuana, two hundred twenty pounds is what have been destroyed over the past year’s period.?
In a past interview, Usher told News Five that every day, members of the BDF on patrol meet hundreds of people along the Belize Guatemala border. But not every meeting goes well. Usher says twice in November of last year, BDF patrols were fired upon by unknown assailants in areas near weed plantations. The BDF did not find it necessary to return fire in those situations. He says the patrol withdrew from Sapote camp yesterday to avoid more fatalities.
Alan Usher
?The matter of fire power balancing fifteen civilians with possibly one or two rifles and shotguns against a Belize Defense Force patrol, there’s no comparison at all, they would be heavily…we would be…firepower would be in our favor. So it was simply to avoid further confrontation.?
A source within the BDF told News Five that another patrol today in the area of Sapote camp encountered as many as thirty armed men but there was no violent confrontation. Up to news time, the body of the man shot yesterday has not been recovered from the area and identified. The Belize government is liaising with Guatemalan officials since it is believed that the man is a Guatemalan.
Alan Usher
?We are presuming the person is Guatemalan simply because there are villages on the Guatemalan side of the border and the nearest Belizean habitation would be in excess of thirty miles to the north to the east and to the south.?
Usher says the BDF will continue to carry out its operations in and around Sapote Camp.
Alan Usher
?We will not tolerate, people crossing our borders or people within our borders, or whatever nationality encroaching into our protected areas and destroying our trees, our rainforest for which much of our livelihood depends. We will maintain our responsibility for protection of Belize, its sovereignty, and in protected areas all Belize laws within Belize.?
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
On June twelfth, a member of a BDF patrol along the Belize Guatemala borders shot and killed Mateo Ramirez. The patrol reported that Ramirez had refused hand over his bag for inspection and that later he threatened the patrol with a machete. He was killed by a single shot to the head. The incident resulted in a commission of inquiry which eventually cleared the BDF of wronging.
