Tonight, there is what we can only call an "explosive" dispute between the BDF and former UDP Minister, Elvin Penner.
The battleground? The Mountain Pine Ridge training site at Baldy Beacon, where the military is in the middle of a mass demolition - destroying nearly two thousand unexploded ordnances.
These are the legacy British training bombs that have littered northern and western Belize for decades. Well, now they're being destroyed, but Elvin Penner had a very different idea. Jaleeza Roberts has the story:
Since the devastating explosion in San Jose Palmar in October, 2005 that killed Jose Valencia - the BDF has been on a desperate drive to recover all the unexploded ordnance - or UXO's as th ey are known - which are strewn in backyards across Belize where many folks think they are harmless collectibles. And this week after collecting an astounding 1,500 (plus) of them, the BDF along with PACAM, the Program of Assistance for the Control of Arms and Munitions, from the OAS embarked on a mass destruction of the bombs at the BDF training site in Baldy Beacon.
Francis Usher, CEO National Defence & Border Security
"So this week, the PACAM individuals from the OAS were here, and they assisted us, supervised us in the destruction of all of the UXOs that we've collected in the last few months. We did an initial destruction, but this was the mass destruction of the bulk of them. So we took all of them to Baldy Beacon, and we've been destroying them. Unfortunately, the weather in Baldy Beacon is very intense, especially the wind. And as everyone knows, it's very hot right now. And so in these hot climates, fires tend to start a lot easier. And obviously, with an explosion, there is fire. So there are shrapnel and small bits of fireballs that go all over the place when you conduct these explosions. They are contained, but they do spread about a bit. And while they're contained in a safe manner, due to the wind, they tend to spread quickly. And the wind caused fires to spread throughout the training area of the BDF. So before the fire started, and even up to yesterday, about 90% of the UXOs were already destroyed. So we only had about 10% left, which is why we reached out to some of the stakeholders last night and asked them to reach out to the others because they do have the communication. We told them like, hey, the guys from the personnel, the specialized personnel from PACAM, from the OAS are here right now. If we are not to complete the job now, there's no telling when they're going to return. So we really had, we had to make a tough decision whether we would focus on just containing the fires or have a team, a quite large team actually, focus on containing the fires while our EOD specialists conduct the explosion or the destruction of the last 10%. So that's what we chose to do. And we did it in an area that was already burned so that no new fires could start as a result of the last 10% of UXOs."
But, their mission was interrupted this morning when they met former Minister Elvin Penner inside the restricted BDF Training Area. Penner - who is known to have property in the area - was allegedly attempting to remove the explosive materials used in the controlled detonations.
Francis Usher, CEO National Defence & Border Security
"So the verbal report that I received was that ex-Minister Penner was in the the Baldy Beacon area around our blast pads. He came up there in his truck this morning and that he was found with some of the charging wire that our EOD team had already set out to detonate a UXO. He went and he retrieved it, rolled it up. I understand that he had it in his truck already along with two pieces of white phosphorus which also is a part of the material used to destroy these things. So he had some very dangerous material that we had already laid out for destruction and he had it in his personal vehicle. And perhaps the most alarming part is that he had that on a drum of fuel, on a jerry can of fuel which is never, that's a recipe for a disaster. I don't know what he was thinking. I don't know what he was doing there. You would have to ask him that. But he was in a very dangerous position. He was definitely obstructing the BDF from doing their duty to destroy these UXOs. And why he would do something so foolish is beyond me."
Penner told us why:
Elvin Penner, Landowner
"This was definitely a mission gone wrong. Terribly wrong, like almost as bad as the movie, Wrong Turn, when it comes to our security forces. But my goal is not to expose them. But it was not that I was found in the process of removing. I had removed. I had removed. And this was to create awareness, finally. Finally, we've been through this. This is like a circus happening every two years with BDF or some other security personnel who go up there thinking it's a playground for anything they want to do with regards to weaponry and explosives, because it's no man's land. But it's not no man's land. It is private property. And it is where we all survive off of. The entire Belize and Cayo District's watershed starts up in the Baldy Beacon area. The same fire that different entities back there were now battling to control. And conflicting reports that it was under control, then it was not under control, then was under control, then not under control, then seemed to have been abandoned by the same forces that started it. Finding myself in a position to try to save the world now. Trying to save the fire from destroying more than it has ever destroyed. But the fire, the fire is what the concern is, and the fire would have destroyed the very same thing that I was able to save for the BDF and the personnel that have it in their possession, and are probably still going to destroy most of it."
And while he says he was trying to save the forest - he may have to save himself from criminal charges:
Francis Usher, CEO National Defence & Border Security
"We're in discussion with our legal cell as well as the police department with all the videos and everything that transpired today. I can say that it was definitely an extremely foolish act on his part. I don't, I really don't know what he was doing. And I can say that this sort of thing cannot be taken lightly. And so we are exploring those options. And if there is enough, then the police department will be the ones to bring charges against him. But we are handing all of that over to them. "
But Penner doesn't seem too concerned about that as he claims the BDF was trespassing:
Elvin Penner, Landowner
"Do you expect to face any criminal charges? Well, I hope not because there could be lawsuits. I know for a fact that one or two of the companies that own vast properties back there that training keeps on or has been on BDF and that stuff has been training on these properties for many, many years. And the present managers of those properties have no recollection of any agreement ever been signed. So who is trespassing? It's the BDF personnel. It's the security personnel. They didn't only trespass. They blew up other people's property. They'd now cause a fire to have burnt down trees that some of us were guarding for the past 10 years. Please grow. If we could have saved them from fire one more time, they would have survived. No, they won't. That is where the focus should be on. "
