The Guatemalan state of Peten which directly adjoins western Belize is under a state of emergency tonight, as Mexican drug gangs have carried out unprecedented violence there.
On Sunday, 27 people - including two women - were killed - 25 of them beheaded - on a remote jungle ranch west of Flores, Peten.
International news reports are that the assailants, moving in several vehicles, stormed the ranch sometime late Saturday.
Well according to reports in Prensa Libre, which we have confirmed with a senior Belizean official, one of the two vehicles carried Belize plates. Belize's Ambassador to Guatemala Fred Martinez told us that the vehicle carried Belizean diplomatic plates, to be precise, and it was attached to the OAS Adjacency Zone office at the Belize-Guatemalan border.
The driver of the vehicle who is a Guatemalan was driving from Flores to Melchor when he was car-jacked at the halfway point. He reported that a crew of bandits snatched him out of the vehicle and were about to kill him with knives when he begged for his life and one of the group of assailants gave the order to spare him. He managed to escape alive but the vehicle was used in the massacre.
The OAS AZ Office as it is called is on the Belize side of the border, between the Belize immigration office and the Guatemalan border office. The office was established in 2004 as part of the confidence building measures between Belize and Guatemala.
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared a state of siege - the second time he has had to do so in half a year as his country has been forced to escalate efforts to combat Mexican drug gangs.
Email
Print