3 Guatemalans caught illegally harvesting in Chiquibul National Reserve

Last Friday, a joint foot patrol in the Chiquibul National Park along with B.D.F. and Rangers led to the detention of three Guatemalans conducting gold paning in the river. The men namely, thirty-two year old Marcos Domingo Para, thirty-two year old Mario Rolando and forty year old Estevan Putul Mai were caught red-handed. Para was found in possession of three-sixteen gauge cartridges in his right back pocket and a search of the area led to the discovery of a sixteen gauge sawed off shot gun hidden under some dry leaves. The trio was arrested and escorted to the San Ignacio Police Station. But tonight three other Guatemalan nationals are detained by San Ignacio Police; this time they were found illegally harvesting timber in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve. Twenty-one year olds, Yovin Ramirez and Jairo Gutierrez, and twenty year old Juan Ramirez were caught cutting down trees near a location some six miles inside Belizean territory with chainsaws. The discovery was made sometime after four o’clock on Thursday afternoon during a joint operation by members from Friends of Conservation and Development, the Police Department and the Belize Defense Force. News Five spoke this afternoon to Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Sheppard of the B.D.F. who says that step up operations will be done in the Chiquibul to prevent these incursions.

Via Phone: Lt. Col. Raymond Sheppard, Chief of Staff, B.D.F.

Raymond Sheppard

“About four-twenty p.m. yesterday, April twenty-fifth April 2013, a joint patrol consisting of members of FCD, the Belize Police Department and the Belize Defense Force in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve when they heard the sounds of chainsaws in operation. The joint patrol proceeded in the direction of the sound and this led them to an area known as Risumadero Camp where they came across a group of three male individuals who were engaged in cutting timber with a chainsaw. Five persons were also found in the immediate vicinity. The Risumadero Camp is approximately six miles east of the Belize/Guatemala border. The three men, who are Guatemalan nationals, were caught with the act of cutting timber in the national forest reserve. When asked, the men were unable to produce a permit from the Belize Forestry Department. Furthermore, they were unable to produce evidence of legal entry into Belize. The three men were consequently detained by the civil police for the offence of harvesting timber from a national reserve without a permit as well as the offence of legal entry into Belize.  It is not the first and there are step up operations in the Chiquibul area in particular to prevent these sort of incursions from happening.”