And, as we pointed out, the release comes after we showed you the depth in jungle penetration and the daring that illegal loggers proceed with - and it's not just happening in Boston Village. Today, the Forestry Department was back there assessing the damage on an operation which the villagers had warned them about months earlier.
We look back at what we saw last Friday and what we heard from elderly villagers:
This is the distinctive Forestry Department stamp that should be on every log cut under a concession.
But, it wasn't on every log we saw in Boston village and many of the bogs did not meet the minimum diameter - this one is mahogany
Indeed, Forestry Department has a lot of logs to check. Serial and egregious infractions but, the man in charge at the scene Jacob Weins had Jose Mai on speed dial.
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."
And while Weins may be a constituent - it seems that if he had nothing to hide - his logging license would have sufficed. A call to a minister - connected to the police. Minister raises many red flags. The Police Minister said only Forestry can make a determination of who's right and who's wrong.
But, of course, the Chairman was correct, he knows his village boundaries. But, by the time it was exposed, the logging season was finished, and the loss to the natural environment around Boston village is incalculable.
Hundreds of logs felled and hauled out.
All visible on the inside, as Forestry drove past this barkadeer
They had to ditch the HILUX and hop onto one of the Chairman's ATV's to go deep inside the forest and see the freshly cut trails.
Where the mosquitoes swarm like venal vultures.
The map showed and there could be no. doubt - that this was within Boston and outside the logging license area.
A trail of despoliation stumps of all types at every turn.
These areas had been recently cut - we could tell from the branches still hanging over the trails.
And after they were forced to bear witness to this waste, dozens of logs have been marked with the Crowfoot hammer.
The loggers stayed in Diamcio Vellos's home:
Jules Vasquez
"I would say well you di uphold them eena this."
Dimacio Vellos, Boston Villager
"I wouldn't say that, because they had a permit and I spoke to them and ask them if they are in their boundary and they said yes they are, plus forestry was here. So if anybody is to blame I'd look to forestry."
"I been fighting with this for many years about this. Logging business and it just doesn't seem to get anywhere - one go, another one come."
That is what villagers have witnessed for years and they've had enough:
Dimacio Vellos, Boston Villager
"How is it that some minister could give concession for our village that doesn't have nothing to do with this area?"
Well this Minister says it's not him:
JO
"Did you help him get his license."
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture & Food Security
"Absolutely not."
But, beyond his blunt denial, seasoned observers tell us that operations like this - there are levels of official and political facilitation that remain behind the corruption curtain.
And, in the end, it's the communities that lose:
Jules Vasquez
"Like it has to hurt your heart as well to know that they are just clear cut the whole forest like this."
Charles Canton, Village Elder
"Yeah it's true, because down the line our kids will not have anything. So we are trying to protect so that the next generation could have something."
As we told you the footprint of damage is now being assessed by both the Forestry Department and NICH - because they also destroyed at least two Maya mounds. We'll keep following up.
