Ministry says evacuation of Santa Rosa has started

True to its word, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a release today on the relocation of residents of Santa Rosa, a tiny village illegally inhabited by Guatemalans on the Belize side of the border in Toledo. The Ministry confirmed that the relocation of eight families began today to a site twenty-four miles west in the Peten region of Guatemala and said that, according to the Organization of American States, the remaining nine families “will be relocated as soon as possible.” The O.A.S., with funds provided by friendly countries, is organising the new community, complete with houses, roads, electricity and water. They will also dismantle the existing structures at Santa Rosa. That settlement lies in a forest reserve that should not be inhabited by citizens of any country. And in a late development we received word that People’s National Party leader Wil Maheia was physically barred from travelling to Santa Rosa today by members of the B.D.F. Maheia had organised an expedition on horseback to confirm that the evacuation was actually taking place.