Tonight, the loggers who extracted timber without a permit from Boston Village are in even bigger trouble. That's because - as we showed you - apart from felling trees of all sizes and types - they also bulldozed two Maya mounds. So, today NICH was out there as well to inspect the damage. The area is very close to the Altun Ha site and Maya mounds are very common. No environmental impact assessment was done - which is required in such sensitive areas. So apart from logging fines, which can be significant - they may also face archaeological fines.
So, while the forestry and logging offenses are being compiled, 40 year old Jacob Wiens is under scrutiny. He was the one in charge of the logging operation when police went there last Thursday.
But is he also the person who speed dialled Orange Walk South Area Rep Jose Mai when police showed up? Mai was the first call that the mennonite logger made -a dn he then handed the phone to Kareem Musa, the police Minister.
We asked him about it today:
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture & Food Security
"I understand that they have a logging procession in that area. We received a call that the police had stopped them. We were informed that I think that the closing period for that ends in July, the end of July but the loggers and the forestry had agreed that what you cut or what is on the ground you can transport to wherever you are going to sell it to. So the police went there to stop that so minister Kareem spoke to the police on the site and Minister Musa was with me at the time in a meeting at the free zone he was doing a tour of all the police stations and the security system in the free zone and I think he spoke to, he did speak to the police men and asked them what the situation was. It was very clear that that was a matter for Forestry to make a determination. I think the chairman made certain allegations that it is coming from somewhere else but we don't know that. We are on the telephone from this side. First you have to go out there with a GPS and make a determination whether it is from there or not from there or not from there. So, all he said was wait, call forestry and make forestry go in and do their assessment and deal with it and whatever they had to do."
JO
"Did you help him get his license."
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture & Food Security
"Absolutely not."
And, as we reported, forestry did make the determination that the loggers were not operating in the area they had been granted a license for. We'll be following closely to see what fine they face.
