At the top of the news we told you about the agreement to create a massive biosphere reserve between Belize, Guatemala and Mexico. It's called bio cultural - and in a sense - that's what the forest around Boston Village embodies. We've been reporting on it for a week. It has an abundance of nature and it exists in the shadow of the once sprawling expanse of Altun Ha.
But, it has been indiscriminately deforested. Yesterday we asked the culture minister what they know so far about the Maya mounds that were bulldozed along with countless trees:
Jules Vasquez
"Isn't that great political aspirant, Mr. Grijalva, Denny Grijalva, malled, Nokmul, or he was accused of doing it. I know Nokmul is a site of far more significance than a mound, but you all were in opposition at the time. And rightly you said, hang him high. Is there that type of spirit to go after these people for making such a violation, even if it's just mounds?"
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Culture
"Yeah, I mean, we have a zero-tolerance policy at the Institute of Archaeology, but I don't want to get ahead of it, because I don't know what was destroyed. If anything was destroyed, I really don't know at this point. So we have to wait until the Institute of Archaeology reports on the matter, and if they determine that there was damage done to anything, then the appropriate action will be taken."
We'll keep following up on it.
