The Guatemalan army may have deployed more soldiers along the border with Belize and that country's congress may have sent out a travel advisory for its citizens in Belize, but on the ground on the poverty stricken Guatemalan villages along the border with Chiquibul, all that political grandstanding counts for very little. In those communities hunger, and the hunt for arable land is what keeps pushing them into Belize.
Further proof of this came between 29th. May and ninth June when a joint patrol was conducted in the areas of Valentin Camp, Retiro, Cebada and Sapote. Now this was more than just the regular joint police and BDF patrol, this one had personnel form the Forestry Department, and the Ministry of Human Development as well as Friends for Conservation and Development. They destroyed 650 Marijuana plants, 50 acres of Pumpkin and 100 Coffee plants. They found six families consisting of 20 persons living in the Retiro are which is well within Belize. They were all ordered to leave.
The BDF also went on a marijuana raid in Patachakan village - this on two days ago on Saturday June 11 in Patchakan village. They apparently knew who and what theyw er elooking for, and conficasted 85 pounds of Marijuana while detaining three men, namely: 44 year old Edilberto Ku, a Vegetable Vendor from Patachacan, 59 year old John Triminio a Farmer from Xaibe and 28 year old Gabriel Chan, a Mason from Patachacan.
Corozal Police have charged the men. According to the BDF, the marijuana has a street value of over seven thousand Belizean dollars.
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