The recent viral video showing turtles being killed is true, but it is not in Costa Rica as it has been made to believe in social networks. The recording was made on the beaches of San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua, not on the beaches of El Coco in Guanacaste.
Nicaraguan media reported that the situation occurred in La Flor Wildlife Refuge, where looters killed turtles and took most of these reptiles’ nests.
People even carry the animals over their heads, as seen in videos and the case was denounced by the environmental organization Paso Pacifico, according to La Prensa and Hoy.
Liza González, director of Paso Pacifico, said that the looting has always occurred, but never like this year, when the extraction of turtle eggs was practically complete,”
reported Hoy.
They went to the water to wait for the turtle, they grabbed it in the water, they threw it on their shoulders and make them lay eggs, and this time, the sadism was so out of control that they even killed turtles,”
added González in the Nicaraguan publication.
The crisis in the neighboring country has increased unemployment and the area where the looting took place has been affected by the decline in tourist visits; surveillance has been reduced to displace resources in order to stop clashes between the civilian population and the armed forces.