US Senators Visit Mirador National Park, A Powerful Model for Conservation and Development

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez and U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen visited Mirador National Park this week with the Guatemalan Government and the U.S. Embassy.

Mirador National Park is a powerful model for community development, long-term protection, and better forest and wildlife conservation. The United States has one of the best National Park Services in the world with deep expertise 

Congressman Gonzalez visited Guatemala this week with U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Congressmen Ruben Kihuen of Nevada. The visit included a meeting with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and a trip to Mirador National Park in Northern Peten.

Congressman Vicente Gonzalez says the United States can and should do more to help develop tourism and industry in the country, alleviating the “push factors” for irregular migration, and by improving American foreign policy.

U.S. Foreign Aid and Development funding has been 90% focused on reconstruction of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, with little US attention to its Central American neighbors.

Hon. Gonzalez, Cassidy and Kihuen took part in a meeting hosted by the Council of the Americas, visited the Mirador Basin at the invitation of the Guatemalan government to discuss the potential for economic development, and visited U.S. Marines stationed in Flores as a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force.

Visit of Congressman Vicente González and colleagues to Guatemala. Courtesy of the U.S. Embassy, Guatemala.

Congressman Vicente González said:

“I think they have a lot of resources in their country, It is a very rich little country. But it has not really explored too many possibilities. For example, we were down in an area where the pyramids are. They have almost zero migration from that region because everyone is employed. There is another area called the Mirador Basin, with 51 lost Maya cities.

It is an amazingly beautiful region that has billions of potential tourism dollars. I think we need to find some investment for that region so we can create employment and security. I think they have the resources. They just need to work a little harder with a better method.”

Tourism guides from the local communities around Mirador can earn thousands of dollars a week guiding visitors on the 5-6 day visit across 25 major ancient cities and last intact major tropical forests in Central America.

In addition to Tourism Development around major archaeological and tropical forest treasures like Mirador, the Senators “picked out the regions where people are most likely to migrate from and we talked about coming up with farm programs to help those regions.” Gonzalez cited a U.S.-funded farm program that helped the state of Chiapas, Mexico.

The U.S. Senators also visited Mexico City and we are encouraged  that the Mexican Government may help Guatemala improve its conservation, tropical forests, wildlife protection, tourism infrastructure and training. A number of Mexican environmental funders like Dons Carlos Slim and Roberto Hernandez have supported millions to Calakmul World Heritage north of Mirador, and in Chiapas.

Senator Bill Cassidy said one of the things he learned on his trip to Guatemala was why people are emigrating to the United States. Popular tourism destinations like Mirador and Tikal National Parks can generate thousands of jobs in Guatemala for the poorest segments in the north of the country.

“The two reasons people are leaving these countries is, insecurity and lack of economic opportunity. We always talk about the crisis on the border but we never really talk about how we got here. Still to this day we are not addressing how we got to this point,” Gonzalez said.

Our congratulations to Dr. Richard Hansen, who led the US Sentaor delegation to Mirador showing an opportunity to generate over 200,000 good paying jobs in the North of Guatemala, a major hub for illegal immigration into the United States.  Mirador National Park is a win-win, by leveraging nearby Tikal National Park roads, airport, tourism and infrastructure, we can generate hundreds of thousands of jobs in Northern Guatemala – Peten.

By building strong economies for local communities around the major assets of Guatemala with its rich UNESCO World Heritage – and unique natural / cultural / archaeological parks will protect the last intact remaining major tropical forest north of the Amazon.

Global Conservation and our partners have funded Mirador National Park $12.5 million in the past ten years, which Dr. Hansen and FARES – Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies – has doubled in their own fundraising.  Over $25 million has been funded for research and conservation of twenty five major Ancient Maya cities.

Without strong international support from Global Conservation, FARES and our partners and US-based funders, Mirador would unlikely still be here as an intact national park, nor achieved UNESCO World Heritage Tentative Listing. 

La Danta Pyramid, largest in the world by volume, was built in 800-300BC requiring millions of manhours to construct.

Guatemala has the most spectacular world heritage but faces massive corruption, lack of government services due to poor tax collection and a dwindling national budget. Unlike the United States which increased US National Park budget by 9% in 2018, Guatemala has slashed personnel and funding for park and wildlife protection by over 30%.

Having worked with 4 Guatemalan governments and Presidencies over ten years, Global Conservation is now focused on securing permanent protection for the entire Mirador National Park, and support Guatemala in protecting its UNESCO World Heritage Parks, which generate over 18% of the countries’ income, and 70% of its foreign exchange.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez and U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales.

More on the US Senators mission and Global Conservation's work in Guatemala:

Rio Grande Guardian:  Congressman Gonzales - We can and should do a lot more to help Guatemala

Global Conservation Progress Towards Permanent Protection: Mirador National Park, Guatemala - Video on YouTube.