7 News Belize

2 Guats Detained In Chiquibul; No One Wants Reponsibility
posted (August 9, 2013)
Two weeks ago, we told you all about the Milpa situation on the Belize Guatemala border – where Guatemalans farmers are pushing into Belizeans territory with large milpas, some bigger than 60 acres.

It's an alarming encroachment and Belizean authorities are doing what they can to drive back the Guatemalan campesinos and reclaim the Belizean territory. But, a new case shows how difficult it can be to actually bring anyone to justice against a wall of institutional indifference.

The Friends for Conservation and Development, FCD which co-manages Chiquibul reports that yesterday morning a joint patrol of FCD Rangers, Police and BDF were in the area known as Valentin in the Caracol Archaeological Reserve, and spotted eight persons harvesting pumpkin in an open field of approximately 20 acres at a location approximately 1 kilometer inside Belize.

Now, it's difficult to arrest all of them due to transport logistics in that remote area, so the patrol agreed to take in the leaders of the group, two men 48 year old Melecio Recinos, and 21 year old Jaime Antonio Diaz both of El Nuevo Paraiso, Peten along with their 4 horses which were seized by the police.

Their story is interesting: Recinos said had been working on the land for about 5 years and that the crops belonged to him. That's an impossible claim since his farm is in Belizean territory in an archeological reserve, so the two men were handed over to the San Ignacio Police Station.

So, they were illegally in Belize – but tonight the news is that there is no one to press charges for their illegal milpa.

The Immigration Department will lay charges for illegal entry but in terms of the forest destruction, illegal use of the archaeological reserve, defacing of a protected area, and cultivation of crops inside the reserve – no institution is ready to press charges – in fact, Forestry and archaeology are passing the buck.

The Institute of Archaeology says it is not an offence within the Ancient Monuments and Antiquities Act, and the Forest Department claims that because it is inside an archaeological reserve then Archaeology has to deal with it.

That bureaucratic standoff is consequential because the 48 hours that persons can be held without charges expires tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. – and if they aren't charged then they will have to be released.

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7 News Belize