Yesterday, Wednesday, at about 4:00 p.m., members of the Belize Defence Force, the police, the Forestry Department and Friends for Conservation and Development on patrol near the Belize-Guatemalan border, ran into a group of Guatemalan loggers illegally cutting mahogany and cedar trees about a mile from the Caracol Maya ruins, in the Chiquibul area of the Cayo District.
A police report states that the team of law enforcement officers had begun questioning two of the illegal loggers when a child shouted “Negrito,” and immediately after, the police heard shots being fired.
The report did not say that fire was returned by the Belizean officers, but they must have returned fire, because one of the Guatemalans was discovered in the bush suffering from a bullet graze on his rib cage after the rest of his countrymen ran off, escaping from the Belizean police and soldiers.
Police arrested Jairo Orlando Ariel Motta, 20, a Guatemalan from La Rejoya Village, Guatemala. The illegal loggers had already cut down a total of 56 pieces of lumber, and the fleeing Guatemalans left behind chainsaws, eight horses, gasoline, and machetes.
Motta was taken to the San Ignacio Hospital, but was released the same day into police custody.
Charges have not yet been filed against him.
Police Press Officer Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood told us tonight that as is done in all these border skirmishes, which are seen as international incidents, the Belize government must inform their Guatemalan counterparts as soon as possible.
In August, 2008, the BDF, along with other agencies, conducted a six-day patrol of the Columbia River Forest Reserve, also along the Belize-Guatemalan border. They were there to assess the flora and fauna but they stumbled into a group of illegal loggers/xateros, believed to be Guatemalans, who then attacked them.
The group of Guatemalans had been caught harvesting mahogany in the area at the time.