The Friends for Conservation and Development report that at around 10:30 a.m. yesterday, a group of FCD Park rangers were patrolling to monitor illicit activities. They were about five miles inside Belizean territory, near to the Ceibo Chico Conservation Post, when they discovered a camp. It was occupied by 4 Guatemalans panning for gold. They were later identified as 39 year-old Roberto Chub Tec, 17 year-old Waldemar Maas Ac, 33 year-old Jose Arturo Pop Caal, and 38 year-old Elam Hose Sam, all of them from the Guatemalan village of Monte Los Olivos. A 5th man escaped.

The rangers found them with 6 vials, 2 of which contained gold, and they also had a plastic bag with marijuana. They said that they arrived in the area 2 days earlier because there was a scarcity of jobs in their community. They said that the gold they pan for can be sold in their village for 180 quetzales or $52 dollars Belize per gram.

The FCD notes that the OAS teamed up with the Guatemalan Department of Agriculture to sponsor alternative sustainable livelihoods in this community approximately 4 years ago. That program was implemented to discourage the Guatemalans from that village from encroaching on Belizean territory. The men told the rangers that they know nothing of this program.

They were escorted from the Ceibo Chico area to the San Ignacio Police Station where they arrived at around 9 last night. They have been handed over to the police, and it is expected that they will be charged by the Forest Department and the Immigration Department for illegal entry and operating illegally inside a park without any permit.