‘Alejandro trained as a Kaibile. He went through the absolute hell of their training regime. He almost lost his humanity to bury himself in the heart of the enemy but he stayed true to his belief in a democratic Guatemala and managed to help get the truth to his British handlers about the worst of the atrocities. The military claimed that it was the guerrillas, the Left-wingers, who were annihilating all the villages and wiping whole communities off the map. He provided the proof that it was the Kaibiles in plain clothes, following counter-insurgency plans drawn up and drilled home by American special forces. When he made it to the military base he thought he would be safe. He was a hero, after all. But when the commanders contacted Westminster they were told a different story. He risked causing embarrassment and difficulty for the Americans. He was to be treated as a potential enemy agent. He was to be quizzed about guerrilla encampments that may or may not have been concealed in the jungle in Belize. And when he couldn’t provide that he was handed back to the Kaibiles and they took such delight in his death that there was almost nothing left of him to parade in front of his family as a warning to those who threatened to betray the Kaibiles.’

A file found at the UK National Archives supports this allegation, and shows that a Belizean major visited the Kaibiles’ notorious training academy, even drawing a crude map of the camp.

A former British paratrooper stationed in Belize has confirmed reports that the British troops were regularly sent on missions into the Guatemalan jungle looking for enemy combatants. They were told that these men were drug runners but many former combatants claim they were insurgents fighting for the right to hold democratic elections and bring an end to the decades of bloodshed.

The Ministry of Defence did not reply to our approach for comment.

***

National Archives, Kew, London

November 10, 2016

9.56 a.m.

Paolo Fergus.

Journalist. Proprietor, editor, senior reporter, photographer and pot-washer and eighteen times Employee of the Month for the award-winning, if little-read news and features agency Aletheia.com.

Last of a dying breed.

He’s an affable, big-boned chap. Isn’t given to the doldrums. Optimist, moderated by experience. Believes that there’s still an important place in society for newspapers and that the internet will eventually burn itself out.