Category: World news

(LONDON) — As the alarms sounded at the Louvre Museum on Sunday morning, four suspects took off on two motorbikes, winding their way through central Paris, allegedly carrying with them a haul of “priceless” jewelry once worn by queens and made of sapphire, diamonds and emeralds.

They haven’t yet been found.

About 24 hours after the brazen theft of some of the most recognizable pieces of glittering French heritage, which were taken during daylight hours from the world’s most-visited museum, a manhunt and investigation are in full swing, according to state and law enforcement officials.

“The theft committed at the Louvre is an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history,” President Emmanuel Macron said on social media on Sunday.

He and other French officials vowed that the pieces would be returned and the suspects apprehended.

The museum closed on Sunday morning as police swarmed the area in search of suspects and evidence.

“Following yesterday’s robbery at the Louvre, the museum regrets to inform you that it will remain closed to the public today,” officials said on social media on Monday. “Visitors who have already booked tickets will be refunded.”

7 minutes, in and out, authorities say
The suspects arrive in pairs, with two in a truck and two riding motorbikes, authorities said on Sunday. The truck was equipped with a moving ladder, a “mobile freight elevator” of the type city furniture movers sometimes use, Paris police said.

The suspects allegedly parked the truck on a road that runs along the side of the museum, near the Seine, police said.

They were wearing yellow vests, dressed as construction workers might be, police said. They took the time to secure the area near the truck by placing orange construction cones around it, police said.

They then used the ladder to get up to the second floor, climbing onto a thin balcony with a metal railing outside the museum’s Apollo Gallery, where some of the French crown jewels were kept, according to police.

Once they had used an angle grinder to open the window, they clambered through it, police said. Their entrance triggered the alarm, which was still sounding when they left, the museum said in a statement.

“Inside, they then smashed two display cases, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ using the angle grinder and stole numerous pieces of high-value jewelry,” police said.  

When they left through the same window about seven minutes later, they had with them nine pieces of jewerly of “inestimable” value, as France’s interior minister described them on Sunday. Other officials, including Rachida Dati, the culture minister, described them to French media as “priceless.”

According to the French Ministry of Culture, among the items stolen was a diadem, or crown, from the collection of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense; an emerald necklace and a pair of emerald earrings from the collection of Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s second wife; and a large bow brooch from Empress Eugenie’s bodice.

The Paris Prosecutor’s Office said the perpetrators tried and failed to set fire to the mobile freight elevator they used in the heist before they fled the scene.

A ‘total’ investigation is underway
Officials at the museum said in a statement that an investigation had been launched into the “organized theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime.”

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, which will oversee the case, tapped a specialized group of detectives, the Brigade for the Suppression of Banditry, which is part of the French National Police, to lead the investigation, according to the Louvre’s statement.

Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, told a local TV station on Sunday that about 60 investigators were working on the case, showing “total determination” to find those responsible.

As of Monday morning, police had not yet said whether they had any leads on the possible identities of the suspects.

Officials said the suspects appeared to have been professionals. Beccuau on Sunday described it as an organized crime, saying officials hadn’t ruled out possible foreign involvement, but also that investigators were treating it as a domestic case at the moment.

“Everything is being done to apprehend the perpetrators of this unacceptable act as quickly as possible,” Laurent Nunez, the interior minister, said on Sunday.

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(HONG KONG) — An Emirates Boeing 747 cargo plane skidded off the runway after arriving at Hong Kong International Airport and landed in the sea, according to airport authority.

Two security personnel were killed in the incident that occurred at approximately 4 a.m. Monday morning, local time, according to Hong Kong police.

They were not aboard the plane, but were in a petrol car that fell off the runway at the same time as the aircraft. One individual was declared dead at the scene and the other after being transported to an area hospital, police said.

The personnel, both men and longtime employees of the airport, were rescued from inside the submerged vehicle that was over 22 feet under the surface of the water and about 16 feet away from the embankment, according to officials.

Police said they suspect the plane struck the ground vehicle as it fell off the runway.

Four crew members on board the plane were rescued and taken to the hospital, according to police.

The weather and runway were safe for operation at the time, according to Hong Kong Airport Authority, and the cargo plane never signaled any issue before veering left halfway down the north runway and crashing through the perimeter fencing and into the sea. 

The plane had originally departed from Dubai, officials said.

The airport authority said rescue operations began immediately after the incident, and the Airport Emergency Centre has been activated. The airport’s north runway is closed. 

According to FlightRadar24’s review of ADS-B data, when the plane hit the water, it was traveling at about 49 knots.

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(PARIS) — Several people disguised as construction workers broke into the world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday, cracking open display cases and stealing jewelry that once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife, officials said.

At least nine pieces of jewelry of “inestimable heritage and historical value” were taken in the brazen heist before the thieves made their getaway on motorcycles, two ministers said.

“Investigations have begun, and a precise list of the stolen items is underway,” the museum said in a statement.

Four thieves pulled off the apparently well-planned heist, according to authorities.

The theft took place around 9:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, just before the museum was set to open to the public, the Paris Police Prefecture said in a statement.

The team of thieves drove up to the side of the museum in what police described as a “mobile freight elevator” equipped with a metal ladder on the back that was extended up to a window, according to the Paris police.

“They deployed the freight elevator, securing the surroundings with construction cones, before accessing the second floor, in the Apollo gallery, by breaking the window with an angle grinder,” according to the police statement. “Inside, they then smashed two display cases, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ using the angle grinder and stole numerous pieces of high-value jewelry.” 

Two of the thieves arrived at the museum in the mobile freight elevator, one wearing a yellow vest and the other an orange vest, according to police. Two accomplices arrived at the museum at the same time on what police described as “T-max vehicles” or sports motorbikes.  

“The staff on site, upon seeing what was happening, took to safety,” according to the police statement. “An alarm was triggered at 9:37 a.m. The perpetrators exited through the window by going back down the freight elevator before fleeing on the two motorbikes at 9:38 a.m.”

Following the heist, police found two angle grinders, a blowtorch, gasoline, gloves, a walkie-talkie, a blanket, and a crown at the scene. Police also found a yellow vest that was apparently dropped by one of the fleeing perpetrators at the corner of Pont de Sully and Avenue Henri IV, several blocks from the Louvre, police said.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez in an interview on local radio said the value of the items would be “inestimable.”

The alleged robbery took about seven minutes, he said.

A notification posted on the Louvre’s website shortly afterward said, “The Louvre Museum will remain closed today for exceptional reasons. We thank you for your understanding.”

The decision to close the museum was made jointly by its management, the police and the Ministry of the Interior, museum officials said in a statement. The doors were closed as “a security measure and to preserve traces and evidence for the investigation,” the statement said.

Kaci Benedetti, who was visiting Paris from the United States, told ABC News she was standing in line to enter the museum on Sunday when a commotion began. Police were running along the courtyard where Benedetti and her family were waiting, she said.

She watched as the officers attempted to enter the building through a side door, but “could not because they were locked,” she said.

“We could see people inside running and some were banging on the glass doors to get out, but could not because they were locked,” Benedetti said. “Then police and military police arrived. After about an hour they announced the Louvre was closed for today.”

The news of the robbery came first from French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, who said on social media, “A robbery took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum.”

Dati added, “No injuries to report. I am on site alongside the museum teams and the police. Investigations underway.”

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(NEW YORK) — With a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in effect, many questions about the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip remain. It may take decades, not years, to rebuild Gaza due to the massive destruction, an expert from the Brookings Institute told ABC News.

Under the ceasefire agreement, the Gaza Strip is set to be redeveloped for the Palestinian people. Jaco Cilliers, an official from United Nations Development Programme, said at a press conference on Tuesday that it had already cleared some 81,000 tons of rubble from the Gaza Strip and was continuing to do so.

However, it is unclear when reconstruction will begin and who will finance the effort, the Brookings Institute expert, Hady Amr, told ABC News.

“I don’t think there’s any modern comparison to what’s going to need to happen in the Gaza Strip right now,” Amr, the former U.S. representative for Palestinian affairs from 2022 until 2025, said. “The level of destruction and devastation is just absolutely immense.”

About 83% of all buildings in Gaza City alone were damaged as of Sept. 23, according to the United Nations Satellite Center. About 40% of those buildings were destroyed. 

“Imagine not just your house was destroyed, your block was destroyed, your neighborhood was destroyed, but 80 to 90% of the universe that you have access to,” Amr said.

Schools, hospitals, as well as water and electricity infrastructure have all been devastated during the two-year war from Israel’s extensive military campaign on the Gaza Strip, Amr said.

“It’s just going to be incredibly difficult for people to just even continue to survive while the reconstruction takes place,” Amr said.

Israel has faced heavy criticism and condemnation over its military action in Gaza from humanitarian rights groups and aid groups.

In September, the International Association of Genocide Scholars — the world’s largest group of academic scholars studying the topic — passed a resolution saying Israel’s “policies and actions” in Gaza “meet the legal definition of genocide,” established by the U.N. in 1948.

Israel has denied that it is committing a genocide in Gaza and denied claims that it has targeted civilian infrastructure. As part of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has agreed to allow into Gaza higher volumes of much needed aid.

Recovery
Significant amounts of equipment and supplies will be needed to begin recovery, another expert said.

“With the rubble and the massive destruction, there is also concern that there are a number of victims, of bodies, that are buried in that rubble — they would also need to be exhumed,” Mona Yacoubian, the director and senior adviser of the Middle East Program at the bipartisan, nonprofit think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News. 

Before reconstruction can begin, there need to be areas that are safe and cleared of unexploded ordnance, Yacoubian said. Amr echoed this point, noting that removing unexploded ordnance and removing rubble will both be a “massive issue” that could take years.

There needs to be a restoration of services like running water and electricity in the meantime, according to Yacoubian.

“There’s going to need to be a massive scale up of life saving assistance just to ensure that people are getting food and medical assistance and also shelter, so perhaps tents, and all the kinds of things that are required,” she said.

The ceasefire agreement ensures humanitarian aid can resume entry into Gaza immediately at a larger scale.

“At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the January 19, 2025, agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads,” the agreement released by the White House said.

Since the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10, it’s unclear how much additional humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza, though Israel has long maintained they have always allowed enough aid into Gaza.

The UN and other international aid organizations have reported they are able to move more freely around Gaza in areas where the IDF has withdrawn, but additional border crossing points have yet to open.

Challenges ahead
Many challenges lie ahead, starting with whether this is really the end of the conflict, according to Amr.

“The central challenges today are ending the war, getting Israel to end its military occupation, and then we need to get to a situation where there can be a security force that comes in to provide basic security. Once that happens, that’s when reconstruction can start,” Amr said.

He highlighted another issue in the reconstruction.

“Freedom of movement of people and goods, that is the central challenge. Palestinians have the skills and knowledge and in fact, much of the Persian Gulf was built with Palestinian knowledge, know-how and manpower. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have long worked in Israel as construction workers,” Amr said. 

“It’s just a question of getting access to having the basic freedom to import what they need to get going,” he added.

Who will pay?
It will take about $70 billion to rebuild Gaza, according to an operational damage and needs assessment conducted jointly by the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank.

European and Arab nations, Canada and the U.S. appear willing to contribute to the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild Gaza, the UN official said on Tuesday.

“We’ve heard very positive news from a number of our partners, including European partners… Canada” regarding their willingness to help, the official, Cillers, told a press conference, adding that there were also discussions with the U.S. 

Oil-rich Arab Gulf states will likely be willing to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, according to Amr and Yacoubian. Egypt could also provide a “logistical base,” he noted.

“United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, I think, are all poised to potentially fund this. Turkey, I think has a great interest in doing it, but their relations with Israel ar. … at a low point,” Amr said.

However, Yacoubian expressed her belief that more progress towards Palestinian statehood needs to be achieved before countries will commit.

“I think that we could certainly see Gulf countries funding it, but they have signaled that they will not fund reconstruction in Gaza in the absence of a longer-term solution to the conflict. And in particular, they are looking to see demonstrated progress on a path toward Palestinian statehood,” Yacoubian said.

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(VENEZUELA) — Venezuelan officials say that they have bolstered their armed forces after the United States conducted another strike on vessel that originated from the country, which he claimed carried drugs.

Venezuelan leaders said roughly 284 battle fronts are operational, poised for either land or sea conflict, two officials with knowledge of the Venezuelan government’s plans told ABC News Friday.

Militias, which are heavily armed, have also been assigned to protect the coastal region at high alert, according to the officials. The officials claimed some 4.5 million militia members were deployed.

Qatar, a key U.S. ally that assisted with negotiations in the Israel-Gaza conflict, is helping with the conversations between the American and Venezuelan governments, the sources said. In the meantime, Venezuelan embassies in Norway and Australia were closed by the government.

On Thursday, the Trump administration announced that it had issued an airstrike against a vessel that originated from Venezuela, claiming it was a drug-smuggling craft operated by narcoterrorists, the sixth such strike since the summer.

At least two survivors from the strike are now in custody aboard an American vessel after being rescued by helicopter, according to a person familiar with details of the incident.

Earlier this week, Trump threatened to attack Venezuela by land, confirmed ongoing covert operations inside the country and ordered bombers to fly in circles off its coast in what appears to be an unprecedented show of force intended to pressure the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, to step down.

“President Trump believes that Nicholas Maduro is an illegitimate president, leading an illegitimate regime that has been trapped in drugs,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. 

When asked on Friday about the alleged CIA operations in Venezuela, Trump told reporters, “I wouldn’t say that.” 

“But some interesting things are happening around the world, I will say that,” he said.

Sources with the Venezuelan government said that Trump’s threat of covert operations is “purely staged,” and refuted the president’s drug trafficking allegations.

When a reporter asked Trump about Maduro offering “everything” including natural resources for mediation, the president shot back:

“He has offered everything. You know why? He doesn’t want to f— around with the United States,” Trump said and ended the news conference.

-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles III, will no longer use his royal titles.

In a statement Friday, Andrew said, “In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family. I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first.”

“I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” he continued. “With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces are investigating reports Israeli troops who were occupying a key sewage treatment plant in Gaza set it ablaze amid a drawdown of their forces from much of the enclave’s territory last week as a part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

The Sheikh Aljin sewage treatment plant, located to the southeast of Gaza City, was badly damaged in the reported fire, according to Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility. 

The CMWU told ABC News that an in-person investigation of the site on Tuesday, Oct. 14, confirmed that four of the plant’s six biological treatment towers had suffered massive fire damage.

According to the CMWU, the plastic cells and hydraulic systems inside the treatment towers had been destroyed and their concrete walls cracked by the fire.

Photos taken by the CMWU’s staff after the fire and provided to ABC News reveal the damage to the plant. The photos show multiple treatment towers with charred walls, their interiors burnt out and strewn with garbage. The treatment towers are scattered with Hebrew-language graffiti, including one reading, “I’ll be back soon.”

Before the devastating fire, the plant had the capacity to serve some 700,000 of Gaza’s approximately 2 million residents, the utility said.

The fire was first reported by Drop Site News, who uncovered two photos appearing to show IDF troops posing in front of burning structures at the Sheikh Aljin sewage plant to the southeast of Gaza City.

The date and authenticity of the photos could not be immediately verified but the structures seen in the images match those seen in the images provided by the CMWU.  

The IDF told ABC News it was aware of the incident, and it is being reviewed.

It was not immediately clear when the fire was first set. NASA’s FIRMS system first detected a fire at the plant at 1:34 p.m. local time on Saturday, Oct. 11. And a satellite photo from Planet Labs taken on the same day shows smoke rising from one of the facility’s six biological treatment towers.  

The IDF appears to have withdrawn from the site before Oct. 11 as Israeli troops vacated much of the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire came into effect on Oct. 10.   

But earlier satellite images points to an IDF presence at the site in the days before the fire, experts say.

Tony Reeves, founder of the private intelligence firm MAIAR, said that it was difficult to make a definitive assessment, this image from Sept. 28 appeared to show objects consistent in their size and shape with military armored vehicles, as well as plowed earth like the kind often used by militaries for fortification.

Reeves said images from Oct. 7 and 11 appeared to point to a drawdown at the site with fewer vehicles present. 

Jeremy Binnie, a defense analyst with the intelligence firm Janes, also told ABC News that while specific vehicles could not be identified the Sept. 28 and Oct. 7 images point to an IDF presence at the site.

The scene, Binnie said, “is consistent with an IDF temporary defensive position in the Gaza Strip as they routinely build protective berms and we would not expect civilian vehicles to be at a disused military position at this time.” 

The CMWU said that owing to the destruction of another treatment plant at Bureij near Gaza’s border with Israel, before the fire the Sheikj Aljin plant had become the last remaining sewage treatment facility set up to serve much of central Gaza and Gaza City.

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(LONDON) — President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke on Thursday, the White House said, ahead of Trump’s in-person meeting on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump, in a social media post, called it a “productive” conversation and said he and Putin would eventually meet again — in Budapest, Hungary, at an unspecified time. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the call lasted more than two hours.

“At the conclusion of the call, we agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated. A meeting location is to be determined. President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked Leavitt if Trump still believed he could get Putin and Zelenskyy in a room together, after he couldn’t reach that step after hosting Putin for a summit in Alaska in August.

“I think he thinks it’s possible, and he would of course love to see that happen,” Leavitt said. “But right now, there were discussions and plans are now being made for the Russian side and our folks, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to meet and then for President Putin and President Trump to perhaps meet again. But I don’t think the president has closed the door on that at all.”

Russia overnight fired more than 300 drones and about three dozen missiles at targets throughout Ukraine, including civilian energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy said on Thursday.

The strike also targeted the State Emergency Service department in the Kharkiv region, he said.

“There are wounded,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “Recovery efforts are underway everywhere. Emergency services are working.”

Zelenskyy, who is scheduled on Friday to meet Trump at the White House, said on Thursday that the ongoing strikes only showed that the West needed to continue applying “pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That pressure included continuing to update sanctions, but, he said, it could also include longer-range capabilities for the Ukrainian military to strike targets farther into Russia.

“Strong decisions are possible, decisions that can help. And this depends on the United States, on Europe, on all partners whose strength directly determines whether the war will be ended,” Zelenskyy said.

He added, “Now there is an important momentum toward peace in the Middle East. In Europe, this is also possible. That is exactly what I will be discussing today and tomorrow in Washington.”

The Kremlin on Wednesday also addressed the potential for the West to supply weapons for or to greenlight longer-range Ukrainian strikes within Russia.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted in Tass, a Russian state-affiliated media outlet, saying that deliveries of U.S.-made Tomahawks would amount to a “dangerous escalation of tensions” between Russia and the United States.

The Russian strike on Ukraine overnight targeted several Ukrainian regions — with a focus on the Poltava and Kharkiv regions — with a total of about 320 drones, about 200 of which were Shahed attack drones, the Ukrainian air force said. About 37 missiles were also fired, the military said.

Most of those aerial attacks were thwarted by Ukraine or otherwise failed, the air force said. Thirty-seven drones and 14 missiles made it through Ukraine’s air defenses, the military said.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also reported downing at least 51 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory. Local authorities said the electricity supplies to several settlements in the Volgograd, Voronezh and Belgorod regions were disrupted by the Ukrainian attacks.

Trump on Wednesday said during an Oval Office press conference that he thought Russia and Ukraine were close to a ceasefire deal about two months ago, blaming the impasse on animosity between Zelenskyy and Putin.

“You know, it’s an obstacle. It’s an obstacle,” Trump said. “There’s no question about it.”

ABC News’s Lalee Ibssa, Joe Simonetti and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A U.S.-led coordination center based in Israel that will oversee implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza is expected to become operational in coming days, two U.S. officials tell ABC News.

The command center, which is tasked with coordinating security, aid and rebuilding efforts inside Gaza, will be led by a U.S. three-star general, at least initially, who has not been identified publicly. The commander will have a foreign deputy, who would be the equivalent of a two-star officer, the officials said.

The center is located inside Israel, just northeast of Gaza at a location not being disclosed to the public for security reasons. Officials said the center will not be located on an Israeli military base to ensure it can remain open to officials from other countries involved in the rebuilding of Gaza.

The center is seen as key to being to execute the extraordinary logistics involved in trying to rebuild and secure Gaza after two years of war. The U.S. and other countries are still discussing what an international security force might look like and how it would operate inside the strip, as well as how food and other aid will be distributed.

Trump has already sent 200 U.S. troops to coordinate the heavy lift; those military units specialize in transportation, planning, logistics and security. They will be working alongside representatives from other partner nations, the private sector and non-governmental organizations.

Sources say the command center is starting off slow, reaching what the military calls “initial operational capability” in coming days.  

Senior White House advisers told reporters Wednesday that creation of the International Stabilization Force is under way. They said that Indonesia, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Azerbaijan and other Arab and Muslim countries have offered to play a role. 

“The International Stabilization Force is starting to be, starting to be constructed and and once that occurs, there’ll be more efforts, but there’s a lot of planning and a lot of very positive conversations between the sides,” one senior U.S. official said. 

 ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — ABC News Live’s original docuseries “Last Lands,” the Emmy-nominated and Webby-winning show, is returning for season 2, kicking off in Guatemala’s Petén region. “Last Lands” covers the two-day journey by ATV through the jungle of Guatemala in search of the ancient Mayan city, El Mirador.

Produced in partnership with ABC News Live and Global Conservation, the only international group focused solely on protecting endangered national parks and Indigenous territories in developing countries. The series takes viewers around the world, highlighting the urgent mission to protect our planet’s most threatened places. 

Hosted by award-winning correspondent Bob Woodruff, “Last Lands” dives into the hidden stories of Guatemala’ s jungle. This is where the story of the Americas began in the remote area of El Mirador National Park, where the Mayan civilization thrived 2,000 years ago. Their existence ended with a mysterious collapse, leaving behind ruins of their cities in Guatemala’s northernmost corner.

The once-vibrant city stands tall within the forest today, having endured since before the time of Christ. The Mayans built a sprawling city with monuments and buildings up to 200 feet high, featuring ornate facades. They studied science and built roads to last 1,000 years, just as the Romans did. 

It was sustained by a rich agricultural economy and connected by a network of causeways, all within 820 square miles located in the Mirador Basin. These cities were interconnected by the world’s first super-highway system, with these ruins being among the 51 pre-Hispanic Mayan cities created around 3,000 years ago. 

There are three ways of getting there, either by chartering a helicopter, going on a three-day hike or taking a two-day trip by ATV, which is most preferred by the park rangers linked to the Foundation for Ecodevelopment and Conservation.

Some of these rangers are part of the FUNDAECO Genesis Program — a team of six tasked with stopping poaching and illegal logging. Given cartel activity surrounding the park, these rangers are unarmed but wear bullet proof vests. Some choose to protect their identities.

“All of them are threatened,” program director Francisco Asturias told ABC News. “They are the ones who take people to jail.”  

The threats are often from those who were stopped by the Genesis team for destroying the park, which can be anyone from hunters to cartel members. Pulga Garcia told ABC News he has received 500 death threats during his time as a ranger. 

“But we always want to continue with the heart of a conservationist, because we were born here,” Garcia said. “To pass it on to my children and from my children, to their children. Because if we lose this jungle, we’re dead.”

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