Melchor de Mencos is a municipality in the Petén Department of Guatemala with population 23,813. It is situated on the western border with Belize, and is the only major border crossing from Guatemala to Belize. The city was established in April of 1960. It is named after Sergeant Major Melchor de Mencos y Varón, who in 1754 journeyed with a tiny contingent of Spanish colonial troops from what is now Antigua, Guatemala to the coast of present-day Belize, there to combat English "pirates" who had settled that region and established a self-governing community.