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FCD Says Guatemalan Aggression Is a Constant
posted (April 21, 2016)
Now to bring matters into perspective we have to highlight the level of aggression than soldiers and rangers in the Chiquibul are subjected to. But even before this fatal shooting occurred, we began seeing an added level of hostility from the Guatemalan military at the Southern Border. So have all of these activities affected the dynamics of poacher and Park Ranger relations at the Chiquibul? FCD executive director Rafael Manzanero, says not necessarily. The level of and aggressiveness on the part of Guatemalan poachers have been consistently high in the area.

Rafael Manzanero, Executive Director
"I think there has always been a high level of determination of the people of Guatemala. That is not really a level of surprise to us. We know that if they are left, they will come around this place. So there's always that determination. For us we have not really seen a spiral of those things certainly over the years we have seen that has always been there. I think the Prime Minister was correct to say quite some time ago, probably about a year and a half, about how 'facey' they were when the Valentin camp was being constructed. That's a demonstration that if left alone, they will try to own this kind of land and natural resources. We have to be able to be more abrupt, we have to be much bold to be able to demonstrate that that was what we can do and how to demonstrate that we can do it."

Emanuel Pech
"Talk to us about the markings on the stump, do you guys take this as a threat? How do you assess that?"

Rafael Manzanero, Executive Director
"I think it is really done in the matter of intimidation. in many places there will be markers, sometimes like in a piece of paper they would write and threaten even the BDF, the police, rangers and they would just leave those kinds of papers. That's more of an intimidation kind of tactic."

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