At the top of the newscast, we told you about Sergeant Ramon Aguilar - who has been missing in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve since last week Wednesday. And there is reason for concern as Chiquibul is known to be frequented by Guatemalan Xaterosm, who are basically outlaws, always at odds with the BDF whose job it is to stop them from illegally harvesting the exotic Xate leaf. Today Lt. Col. Reuel Black told us what the BDF is doing to find the sergeant.
Lt. Col. Reuel Blsack, BDF
"We have not seen anything from him since then, no signs of him as yet. He is a member of the International Jungle Warfare Instructor's Courdr and that course is run every year in Belize. As part of the training, he was conducting, they were doing a navigational exercise and the navigation exercise is in the area of Las Cuevas which you can see in this area here and he had completed his training and was on his way back when he realized that he didn't have his map.
The map is a very critical document. In operations, if you that type of thing like leaving things behind during training, you will do it during war and a map will tell the enemy where you are, where you've been, what area you're operating---it gives a lot of information. So it is mundane, actually it is something very serious. Yes he could go back to get his map, especially in that area where the distance was not that far away. The maximum distance was 450 meters or 1,350 feet."
Alfonso Noble,
What are your efforts to locate this gentleman?
Lt. Col. Reuel Black,
"Well so far we have been searching for him from since then. We have intensified the searches. We have put in more soldiers and we have some more going in today. We also have the Forestry Department assisting us. We have the Caves Branch Adventure Training who will be going there today with their tracker dogs to assist us in the tracking so that we can have a better chance of locating him.
He probably did not find his map so he does not have a way to navigate back. He has to use now the other techniques taught in training, which is using the sun which is east, following rivers, and other things which do not include a map. A map is the best and fastest to get back to your known location.
He is a competent sergeant. He has been in the Force from since 1993. He has done all his courses. In fact the night before or the days before he was going on the training. He was with his fellow comrades in the signals department and going over certain things that he should know. So he was quite enthusiastic about it. He can navigate, of course you need a map to navigate with. He can navigate. He has the survival skills necessary to keep him alive for extended periods and he has the knowledge and he is fit.
Here is Las Cuevas. The nearest place you would have there is Augustine which is further up, where actual people live. Otherwise than that we have the Caracol Maya Ruin which is over this side, which is about 15 kilometers away, and then we have the Gold Mine is which is about 35 kilometers away.
On foot without a map you cannot tell because you have to know the tracks and you have to be on track. If you go on those tracks, we would have found him already. He is not on track. He is not on the tracks that we have checked already. That is what I can say at this time."
Aguilar is the father of two children. We'll be following up on the search in tomorrow's newscast.
