High level meetings were held yesterday in Washington to discuss - among other things - the BDF's recent shooting death of a Guatemalan who was illegally logging in Belize.
But - while one man has died - it doesn't mean that the incursions have stopped. The Colombia forest continues to be preyed upon by poachers.
According to the Ya'axche Conservation Trust, the situation in the south is rapidly escalating.
Ya'axche reports that recently on a joint patrol with the BDF, four soldiers accompanied four Ya'axché rangers to the border of the Bladden Nature Preserve and the Colombia River Forest Reserve - which is considered a hostile area.
On the second day of the five day patrol, the patrol heard shots fired at increasingly frequent intervals as they progressed towards Baldden.
A short while later Ya'axché's rangers came face to face with a Xatero, carrying a 16 gauge shotgun, who quickly escaped as he recognized the presence of BDF support. Upon reaching the camp just inside Bladden one of Ya'axché's rangers then came upon another Xatero on the perimeter of the camp; he was also carrying a 16 gauge shotgun.
With that, the patrol including BDF Soldiers had to retreat and return to base.
In a recent report, Ya'axche says four soldiers are not enough and there is a need for a greater deployment of manpower to patrol this region.
