OAS probe absolves Belize in shooting of Guatemalan teen

GUATEMALA CITY – Experts from the Organization for American States released a report Friday that indicates a Guatemalan teen killed in April near the two countries’ border was shot by members of a conservation group.

The bullets that killed 14-year-old Julio Rene Alvarado Ruano came from a shotgun and a .22 rifle carried by members of a Belizean conservation group, the Friends for Conservation and Development. The group was accompanied by a lieutenant of the Belize Defence Forces, but he did not fire the shots that hit the boy.

The patrol members said they fired in self-defence in a Belizean national park on the border.

The shooting had threatened to turn into a diplomatic tussle between the two countries and the latest flashpoint in a longstanding territorial dispute. Guatemala claims parts of territory governed by Belize as its own.

Belize said its security forces were investigating illegal land clearing in the Cebada area of the Chiquibul National Park in western Belize when they detained a Guatemalan man suspected of illicit activities. It said the patrol came under fire around nightfall and shot back in self-defence.

Guatemala has said the teenager, his father and his 11-year-old brother were attacked as they were planting crops or hunting.

An OAS representative said it was time to leave the incident behind. Magdalena Talamas said “we cannot change what happened. It is time to turn the page.”