A month ago, we showed you the new crop of FCD rangers trained and ready to protect the Chiquibul National Park from Guatemalan poachers. Well, they're already delivering results, and tonight 2 Guatemalans from the village of La Rejoya are at the San Ignacio Police Station, awaiting formal charges after they were caught poaching xate leaves.
A group of rangers were on a patrol in Chiquibul yesterday in the area known as Cubetas, when they came in contact with a Guatemalan man by the name of Transito Esquivel. He had several who sacks of Fishtail Xate leaves, which is one of the desired species inside the Chiquibul. The officers detained Esquivel and he escorted them to his camp which he has been using to gather the leaves. The officers arrived and after taking coordinates, they realized that this camp was 21 kilometres in Belizean territory.
There, they also encountered Christobal Vasquez Ramirez and he too was detained. The camp was destroyed and both men were escorted to the San Ignacio Police where they await charges from the Immigration and Forestry Department. Two other important notes, one is xate is an export product for Guatemalan encroachers. The leaves usually make their way into the US or Europe, particularly Holland, and are used in high quality floral arrangements or decorations.
The next important note is that both men, as we told you, are from La Rejoya Village. If that name jogs your memory, it should because there was a confrontation between several villagers from La Rejoya and the BDF over the construction of Valentin Camp last year.
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