Twelve Years After Danny Conorquie, Is Caracol Safe?  

Twelve years after Special Constable Danny Conorquie made the ultimate sacrifice while defending Belizean territory at the Caracol Archaeological Reserve, the ancient Maya site is entering a new era of growth and investment. With hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars earmarked for preservation works and visitor numbers surging following the completion of the paved access road, more attention is being placed on one critical question, security. While the increased traffic is a welcomed boost for tourism, Caracol remains nestled near a border region long challenged by illegal incursions, plundering and other crimes. As concerns persist about protecting both visitors and Belize’s cultural heritage, we asked Minister of Culture Francis Fonseca whether current safeguards are enough for the site’s expanding future.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Culture

“We have our team of Rangers who work at the Institute of Archaeology, um, and their job, of course, is the protection and really preservation of this site. So it’s something we’re always concerned about but I think we have had in place for a very long time, a very good structure, security structure to ensure that, you know, those who come across the border are not doing too much damage to the site. Some of that is happening and we always have to be very concerned about that. The wider Chiquibul, as you will appreciate is a massive, massive area of land and that’s much more difficult to – for us to manage, much more difficult for us to really control and patrol effectively. So we’re always looking for, you know, better ways of security management of the area. In the Chiquibul, as you know, we’ve had a long history of people coming in, you know, cutting down the trees, gold panning, you know and a lot of incursions into our territory. So it’s an ongoing challenge but we work collaboratively. As I said, BDF, police, FCD, Institute of Archaeology, NICH. We all work together to do our best to try to protect and preserve this area.”

 

Danny Conorquie was killed on September 25, 2014 after he approached two intruders of Hispanic descent who were on horseback. The men opened fire, fatally wounding Conorquie before fleeing into the forest towards Guatemala. A conservation post was constructed near the Caracol one year later to increase security presence in the area.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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