Yesterday the BDF Commander explained that sometimes that verification takes months, and the illegal loggers continue to cut trees in the reserve. In the case of the bridges that were destroyed, he said the BDF reported those from last year.

Brig. General Azariel Loria, Commander, BDF
"We have to, whenever we encounter plantations, roads that are built by Guatemalans, whoever, if it is within the 1 kilometer buffer zone from the border, one kilometer to the east of Belizean territory, we have to report it to the Ministry of National Defense and ask for a verification to occur. Sometimes the verification takes months, the OAS have told us at certain meetings that sometimes they do not want to go and do the verifications because they're scared of entering certain areas because of the narco activities that are happening on that side of the border. We always tell them but we can escort you from our side but it's too remote, it's too far away, and they mentioned to us that they will lose the neutrality because they are an independent entity and they're support to conduct the operations independently."

"The bridge, one of the bridges falls within the one kilometer from the border to one kilometer to the east, we have reported that bridge from sometime last year and it has not been verified. We couldn't wait any longer and we destroyed it because they constructed another bridge so it was two bridges that were at that trail that they have so we went and destroyed. They came back about a week after, the same Guatemalans, and they built it over again so we went back and destroyed it yet again. And we are monitoring the areas."

And Loria also explained that the BDF alone cannot contain the illegal activity occurring in the Colombia Forest Reserve. He told us that there needs to be more collaboration with the Forest Department and an NGO like FCD to tackle the vastness of the reserve.

Brig. General Azariel Loria, Commander, BDF
"The reserve, the Columbia Forest Reserve is not like the Chiquibul where there is a set or a group of environmentalists that look after the Chiquibul. In the Colombia Forest, there is none. We were trying to encourage others to try to link up or coordinate with the Forest Department so that they could co-manage and we could assist and we believe that that is the primary responsibility for the Forest Department and whoever wants to co-manage it to assist. Again, the Colombia Forest is vast, a lot of acres, a lot of jungle, and we have two observation posts in that area, one on the outskirts and that is the Santa Rosa post and the Machakil Ha. We acknowledge that there is a lot of illegal logging going on and this is not just for this year, all the years it's the same thing during the dry season, that is when the villagers from across - because they have villages strategically set up along the border and that is very problematic to us especially when they do not want to abide by the confidence building measures because they too, on their side, the Guatemalans, specifically the Guatemalan Army have been, as part of their regulations, they are to dissuade the villagers from encroaching into Belize and obviously they're not doing that, they not living up to the part of the confidence building measures."

"We would need more assistance from the Forest Department, a co-management, and NGO, or whoever that is willing to do like what FCD in co-managing, preserving the environment to come and assist because our primary role there is to maintain the sovereignty of Belize and dealing with the Guatemalan Armed Forces."