Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Military Guards Nature Park

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

GUATEMALA CITY, May 22 2004 (IPS) - Sixty soldiers from the Guatemalan army will back 50 agents of the National Civil Police (PNC) in fighting vandals and drug traffickers who threaten the Laguna del Tigre National Park, located in the northern department of El Petén. The military will provide support for the PNC, who belong to the Nature Protection Service and are specialized in environmental protection, police spokesman Faustino Sánchez told Tierramérica.

The contingent was dispatched on May 13, the day Congress approved 625,000 dollars this year and 375,000 for the next to protect the national park's resources, lawmaker Alfredo Cojtí told Tierramérica.

Approval of the funds was decided after receiving numerous reports that lumber and drug traffickers were destroying the park, which covers 290,000 hectares and holds many endemic species, and has been a protected area since 1990.