This weekend, the clear and present danger for Belize security forces manning the borders to protect the Jewel from illegal activity by Guatemalans was evident at the Rio Blanco post of the Chiquibul Forest Reserve in Cayo. Two men, assumed to be xateros – harvesters of the high-profit xate palm – launched a savage machete attack on Belize Defence Force (BDF) soldier, Marvin Teul, 21.
BDF Commander Dario Tapia said that the incident happened only about 250 meters from Belize’s border with Guatemala.
This is the second violent attack by Guatemalan encroachers upon Belize security forces in less than two weeks. Amandala had reported that on August 29, that Guatemalans illegally harvesting xate had fired upon a 16-member patrol at the Columbia River Forest Reserve, forcing them to return gunfire and cause minor injury to a Guatemalan.
The end result was more severe this weekend, when an officer who had let his guard down by going unarmed to find bananas in the jungle almost lost his life when two Guatemalan xateros came up from behind him and unleashed the vicious machete attack.
Major Ganney Dortch, BDF chief of staff, told Amandala that Teul and another soldier, Dennis Cal, were going to look for bananas in their “free time” when two xateros attacked them, chopping Teul down to his neck bone, and in his back.
The incident, said Dortch, happened at about 4:30 p.m. this past Saturday, September 13, but a rescue helicopter did not arrive at the post until around 8:00. The injured soldier was transferred to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was immediately given two pints of blood to replenish the blood lost while waiting for rescue, and he was sent into emergency surgery.
According to Dortch, the xateros were not apprehended, but fled, presumably over the border, not far from where the incident happened.
BDF Commander, Colonel Dario Tapia, told Amandala this evening that security officers have to remember to be alert and vigilant, and the force has to investigate why the two officers were away from their post by themselves, and why there was a breach in operational security at the observation post.
He said that the officer is recovering and may be transferred to the military medical facility at Fairweather Camp, Ladyville, tomorrow.
Commander Tapia underscores that the threat on Belize’s borders for Belize’s security officers is “very real,” particularly so from Guatemalans caught doing illegal activity on the Belize side of the border, and who simply want to retaliate against the soldiers who stand in their way.