Authorities are investigating the murder of Benito Cal, a 67-year-old man, in Roaring Creek Village, Cayo. According to police, the investigation commenced after officers responded to a report at the Roaring Creek Cemetery earlier today. Upon arrival, officers found the motionless body of Cal, bearing injuries to his face.
Cal was last seen around 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12, and was discovered lifeless at approximately 6:30 a.m. the following day.
The body was subsequently transported to the Western Regional Hospital, where Cal was pronounced dead. The investigation is ongoing.
Commission of Inquiry Begins Investigation into Belize’s Sugar Industry
The Commission of Inquiry into Belize’s sugar cane industry, established by Prime Minister John Briceño on March 19, held its first meeting on May 29. The Commission, led by Chairman Wayne Piper and commissioners from Belize, Mauritius, South Africa, and the UK, aims to examine the industry’s entire value chain and provide recommendations to the government. The initial meeting outlined plans for visits to sugar mills and production sites across Belize, with commissioners arriving in early June. The Commission’s proceedings will not be public, but updates will be provided through the Lead Coordinator, Hugh O’Brien. The final report is expected by November 30, 2024.
BSI Expresses Concerns Over Commission’s Focus
In a press release dated June 4th, Belize Sugar Industries Limited (BSI) expressed support for the Commission’s role in advising on industry modernization. However, BSI also expressed concern. Its primary concern is sharing proprietary information due to competitive pressures. BSI stated it would not cooperate if the Commission’s focus shifts to negotiating a new commercial agreement, which they consider a private matter. BSI says it is open to discussing reforms to industry regulations and participating in efforts to improve mill efficiency and cane yields in northern Belize.
BSCFA Calls for Public Inquiry and Cooperation
The Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA) later issued its press release on June 6th. BSCFA says that it welcomed the commencement of the Commission’s work, viewing it as long overdue since the last inquiry in 1969. The BSCFA emphasised the importance of this investigation for the sugar industry and urged the Commission to hold public meetings. The BSCFA expressed concern over BSI/ASR’s position on sharing sensitive information with the Commission.
Lead Coordinator, Hugh O’Brien, says Inquiry Going Quite Well
On June 13th, News Five’s Marion Ali caught up with Hugh O’Brien, the Lead Coordinator for the inquiry in Orange Walk Town. When asked how the inquiry is going, O’Brien said, “The inquiry to, in my view so far is going quite well. The ambience between the people that the commissioners have met, particularly, we’ve sat down. We spent a day and a half with BSI. That went extremely well. BSI was very, very open. They shared their information that they had with them and various components of the factory and how the factory operates and their overall program and their views for the industry in terms of what they see is needed for Belize from their perspective. And then the tour of the factory with BSI went extremely well. And then following that the second day they did a tour of field activities, BSI’s operations at the field level, their farms and the services that they are with a view from their perspective that they have in mind. That they can contribute towards helping to modernize the industry in Belize.”
When asked about the commissioners’ views, O’Brien said, “they are calling me because currently they are meeting with the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association at the SIRDI office in Buena Vista and the commissioners also yesterday did a complete, they receive a presentation from Santander which have a very different structure and they’ve toured the Santander factory and they also had a complete tour of the Santander fields of sugar cane. So, they’re getting a good view and a good handle of, of what is occurring in Belize? Previous to that, they had presentations from the staff at the Sugar Industrial Research and Development Institute. They had a presentation and discussion with the sugarcane production committee because the way sugar is delivered in the north is very different than the west and is a very intricate system in the north because of the large number of small farmers and people battling to try to get their sugar into the factory.”
When asked about the concerns raised by BSI, O’Brien said, “The commission has never changed its focus. The terms of reference of the commission of inquiry was drafted and there were concerns that BSI raised. That’s when I kind of got involved and the prime minister asked me to, and I said, we’ve had discussion with BSI. They sent back recommendations from their standpoint and we made adjustments to the terms of reference, but we never gave in to what BSI wanted.”
O’Brien said that the commissioners will now create a list of specific items that they want from the two factories.
Yesterday, June 12, 2024, the Fisheries Department received a report of a manatee calf in the Belize River that was observed to be unable to dive. In coordination with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute (CMARI), a team from the Fisheries Department responded to this report. Through a joint effort, the male calf was successfully rescued and transported to Orange Walk, where the team met up with Wildtracks who then transported the calf to the rehabilitation center. The calf was unable to dive, was emaciated, sunburnt and had propellor cuts on its tail. “Kevin” the manatee calf is in a delicate condition but is now receiving care from the Wildtracks team.
The Department is grateful for this collaborative effort with its partners CMARI and Wildtracks. Recently, the Fisheries team that responded to this stranding attended a training at Wildtracks for manatee response, rescue and rehabilitation and yesterday that knowledge and those skills gained were applied.
Police in Dangriga are investigating one of their own. Police Constable Harry Bo is accused of firing a single shot near another officer’s feet. It happened on Wednesday night while PC Bo and other officers were in front of Wa-gusina Fast Food. While waiting for their food, PC Christian Koyoc praised PC Jerel Hendy for his performance.
PC Bo quickly interjected, saying, “I am the sickest. You no work with me yet. You need to work with me one of these days.” Wanting to prove that he is the “sickest”, PC Bo reportedly pulled out his service weapon and fired a single shot near PC Hendy’s feet.
PC Hendy reported the matter to higher-ups.
It is unclear if alcohol was involved. We are told that PC Bo refused to provide a urine sample.
A request for comment has been sent to the Belize Police Department.
On Thursday, G7 leaders reached an agreement to lend Ukraine $50 billion this year, backed by profits from frozen Russian assets, to support the country’s war efforts and rebuilding initiatives.
This plan, which has been in development for years, is a win for US President Joe Biden, who has been advocating for the deal amid some European countries’ hesitation. The agreement will be formalized in the summit’s concluding communique.
However, key details of the plan still need to be ironed out. While the US is prepared to offer a loan of up to $50 billion, the exact amount the US will lend remains uncertain. Other countries will contribute to share the risk.
Officials anticipate that while it will take time for the funds to be disbursed, the process will begin within this calendar year. The funds will be allocated for military, budget, humanitarian, and reconstruction support.
The loan can be considered “secured” due to the interest generated from the Russian assets. Although there are scenarios where the income stream “may not flow,” reparations could provide a solution.
If a peace settlement occurs, the assets could either remain immobilized, continuing to generate interest to repay the loans, or Russia could be held accountable for the damage caused.
It was a big day for the Joint Unions Negotiating Team, as it signed a long overdue collective bargaining agreement with the Government of Belize. It was a lengthy process that began in late 2008 and, sixteen years later, was finally completed today. The Belize National Teachers Union, the Public Service Union and the Association of Public Service Senior Managers were all represented this afternoon at the House of Culture here in Belize City, where signatures were affixed to a new C.B.A. that has the approval of all parties. But was the signing of the collective bargaining agreement merely ceremonial, since the time allotted for the existing agreement expires in August? Following the event, Prime Minister John Briceno spoke on his administration’s will to complete the process within the period that it has been in office.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“We are a government committed to doing what is right, that we are a government that’s committed to our workers and that we made certain commitments to the union when we needed help when we just got into government and, lastly, it is the right thing to do. That is why we managed to finally come to, bringing this agreement to an end which is, unfortunately, the next two months the time period will end and we’ll have to start a new cycle.”
Reporter
“But sir, you are also the prime minister who complains almost in every budget presentation about the onerous wage bill, it’s at like six hundred million now. Where are we going with this, as in when will you take steps to curtail that?”
Prime Minister John Briceño
“That has not changed and in my remarks I mentioned it and it’s something that has to be addressed. We are addressing it right now when it comes to the issue of the pensions, it is unsustainable and we’ve had a number of discussions with the unions and the unions have already agreed in principle that the pension as it stands right now is unsustainable and that we are coming up with an agreement as to where’s going to be the cutoff date as to will stay on on the present system and who will come on on the new system.”
Spearheading the effort on the part of government was Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde. Along with a team of senior government officials, he sat with the Joint Unions Negotiating Team and together they hammered out the terms of the new agreement. Admittedly, Hyde said the process was at times testy. Nonetheless, both parties were able to arrive at an amicable management-union agreement. So, will the C.B.A. be short-lived?
Cordel Hyde
Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister
“In some ways, but it’s substantive too because, the truth is, there was a big sticking issue for all these years, for sixteen years which is Proposal 22 which is a costly one, as the prime minister pointed out. Over a five-year period, it’s gonna cost sixty-eight million dollars. No government was willing to countenance that over this long period of time but it was absolutely important to them. I can tell you that sometimes things got really, really testy over that issue, even within the unions themselves. But it’s the right thing to do, ultimately you have teachers working for many years in the service, working at institutions where they are getting seventy percent of their salaries from government, thirty percent from private owners and then when they retire, they can only get seventy percent of pension from government and the private owners are the, not the private owners but the church owners. They don’t pay, they are not able to pay, as they say, so these people, after giving all their lives to public service, I mean it doesn’t get any better than that when you’re a teacher and giving so much of your time, so much of your effort, so much of your being to teaching.”
The People’s United Party has chosen Doctor Osmond Martinez as its standard bearer in Toledo East where he will face Dennis Williams of the United Democratic Party in an upcoming bye-election. The vote, restricted to that constituency only, will see a new area representative taking office ahead of general elections in 2025. While the prime minister has been reserved in a sharing a date for the bye-election, he told reporters this afternoon that it is now set for July seventeenth.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“I’ve asked for the writ to be prepared and the date that I have set after consulting with the Elections & Boundaries Commission to see when they could get ready the voters list, I would want to have it as early as possible. The date is going to be July seventeenth, which is going to be on my birthday. So I’ll be working on that day in Toledo East.”
It happened on June first, but only came to light this week, that doctors and nurses who were on duty at San Ignacio Community Hospital that night came under threat by relatives of a severely injured man. David Galindo was shot while visiting his girlfriend on Salazar Street in Santa Elena Town and was rushed to the hospital for treatment. He died a week later, but the series of events that occurred at the hospital on the night he was taken there have reportedly left the staff at the facility in fear of their lives. Members of the Galindo family are accused of hurling threats at the medical team that if David Galindo died, the medical professionals would die too. But the family has come out slamming the Belize Police Department and the media for referring to them as gang members. And when asked about it, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams basically brushed off the family’s reaction. He told reporters that, moving forward, he wants the Belize Police Department to collaborate with the hospital in formulating protocols so that order is kept. News Five’s Marion Ali filed this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, arrived at the San Ignacio Community Hospital just before two p.m., where he met with the management and staff, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. He told us after the session that he wanted to hear firsthand from the officials what transpired on the night of June first, when David Galindo was taken to the hospital.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“Having heard from them what took place on the night in question, we discussed to see what we can do to make sure that there is no occurrence in the future. And one of the things that we are doing is that my legal officer, Mr. Jones, will be working along with Dr. Sabido to develop a protocol in terms of how the police is going to respond to incidents at the hospital. And even what the police is going to do when there is a high profile patient being treated at the hospital. Particularly if that patient is brought by the police. So the, way it was done before where the police just come and drop the person and leave. There have to be something done to create police presence. In the event that persons may want to come and create problems.”
David Galindo
The family of David Galindo has lashed back at the police, denying that they are gang members. Galindo’s brother, Mynor Galindo told News Five on Tuesday evening that he was not at the hospital the night when his brother got shot and only found out that he had been shot when his family called to inform him. He said he found out that the ambulance driver did not want the family to accompany David to the hospital and that if they tried to, he would park the ambulance. Galindo said this was when there was some back and forth with the staff.
In a Facebook post, Dianie Waight, said that she was the only one who accompanied her brother in the ambulance. She denied that any of her relatives are gang members. Waight said, “It wasn’t even the police that took him to the hospital. We did cause if it was left to them, as they hear a Galindo is down, they would move much slower. They took more than thirty minutes to arrive at the scene. We were desperate, we wanted the doctors to move faster. I do apologize for any misbehaviour. The next thing, they said a gang member. Soh I da gang member now then? I had a right to go along. Somebody had to go with him.”
Commissioner Williams did not care to respond to the Facebook post. He focused his comments on the meeting with hospital administrators and told reporters that investigators are reviewing surveillance footage from the facility to identify the persons who threatened the hospital staff. During the meeting, the ComPol shared a few suggestions.
Chester Williams,
“I also suggested to the hospital what they can do is that, with their security that they currently have, we can look at training them and making them special constables. Since the police is not able to work at the hospital on a 24 hours basis, the security that they have, if they’re special constables, they’ll have the poor as a police. They’ll be able to do law enforcement job and arrest people who may come on the grounds to create problem. We also discussed to see how we can do we’re going to be doing crisis management training for both the hospital staff as well as the police again. The hospital staff would require the training so that they know how they’re going to handle a crisis at the hospital and the police will be trained to be able to respond to that crisis, so it’s going to be a joint venture between the police and the hospital authority to make sure that should there be a crisis, our response is going to be in sync with each other.”
This is an idea that Williams would recommend for hospitals across the country, especially the ones that are in locations where gang activity is high.
Chester Williams
“We have to make sure that when we do have patients who are high profile, when I say high profile like in the sense of their presence at an institution may create some threat, then we will have to make sure we have a system in place to be able to deal with that so it can be replicated across the country. Again, really said they does have something not in writing, but it is implied. Police officers do know that when they respond to an incident at K.H.M.H., we normally leave police officers there. We’ll see how we can adapt that. In the time being, police can stay at the hospital while the patient is here, at least for a certain amount of hours until the patient is stabilized or transferred or whatever.”
When asked why the meeting had just been called when the incident occurred from June first, Commissioner Williams said that he had just recently become aware of its veracity and egregious nature. Marion Ali for News Five.
The administration and medical staff at the San Ignacio Town Hospital are not the only ones in that community that have expressed concerns about the increase in criminal activity. After his meeting with the hospital administration, Police Commissioner Chester Williams held a meeting with the businesspeople from that area. They turned out in numbers, along with residents, to share their thoughts and suggestions on how to address the problem. Cayo North East Area Representative, Orlando Habet, also attended the event, and he told News Five’s Marion Ali that Cabinet had just discussed the issue the same day and had taken the first steps to curbing the crime situation in the once peaceful twin towns. Here’s that report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The meeting with the members of the Cayo business community ended in the night with a variety of concerns, suggestions, and expectations. Police Commissioner Chester Williams said it was important to get those thoughts to see how they could allay the fear that some residents and businesspeople could be experiencing.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“I brought my team with me. I have Commander of Operations, Mr. Grinage. I have Mr. Gamboa, who is the Commander of S.P.U. I have Mr. Bart Jones, who is a legal officer, and we also have the new Deputy Commander of the Western Region, Mr. Crispin Castillo, and Mr. Franco is also a part of the meetings. It is important for us to hear what are these concerns, and then we’ll make sure that whatever policing plan we’re putting in place, have in place, it is adjusted to be able to address the concerns of the business community and not just the business community but the wider community on a whole.”
There were quite a few concerns and suggestions from the persons who attended the event. Jian Li spoke of the concerns that the Asian community in the twin towns have and he says that they have lost interest in the police department.
Jian Li
Jian Li, Spokesperson, Asian business community, Cayo
“They were concerns over the crime rate, especially with the incident with the previous Chinese guy that has passed away – been killed – we have lost interest in the police department because four to five businesses have been robbed already and they have no result, no result in whatsoever. We want to discuss how can we actually implement a better solution for San Ignacio and Santa Elena and the urban areas and the villages in the Cayo District.”
Li says that the Asian community is not pleased with the way the San Ignacio Police Department has handled the crimes that have occurred. Now, a community that used to donate freely to the formation is contemplating a whole new approach to giving back to the police.
Jian Li
“That’s what we’re discussing right now – that what if we donate and they don’t do much work? What would be the result? So what we are discussing is that whosoever participates in capturing the attacker or the robber or the killer, they will be rewarded as long as he posted in the social media or in the mainstream media in Belize and we see that it’s approved, then we will approve a reward for the participants with the police.”
Marion Ali
“So the individual officer, not the department or the branch will be rewarded?”
Jian Li
“Not the branch, just the individual, or any individuals that participated.”
Li expressed hope that the police in Cayo will also conduct more traffic checkpoints and zero in on motorcycle drivers and passengers since recent crimes have been committed by people on motorbikes. Shelmarie Smith works with the San Ignacio Town Hall, but on Tuesday evening, she spoke as a concerned resident.
Shelmarie Smith
Shelmarie Smith, Concerned resident
“People here in San Ignacio and Santa Elena are really and truly concerned about the crimes that are being committed here in the Twin Towns. And we’re trying to see how we can work together with the police to bring these people to justice. It’s very sad to see that our people here are being killed for no reason at all, or because they are working hard. And these criminals are just coming to just take away their daily lives like that because of an amount of money or something to that effect. It’s not fair. We could sleep with our doors unlocked. Now we have to be closing burglar bars and all that. So I believe that it’s just criminals coming from different areas to our town. So we need to install those police checkpoints at all times and have them there 24/7. There’s 100 of them or 400 of them. There’s 40,000 of us. So we have to get together and pull as a community to fight these crimes and that’s the only way it can be solved.”
Cayo North East Area Representative, Orlando Habet, also attended the event and assured the gathering that, coming out of Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the concerns would be addressed in a timely manner.
Orlando Habet
Orlando Habet, Area Representative, Cayo North East
“San Ignacio and Santa Elena being the second largest municipality needs to have more police officers. And as a matter of fact, we understand that it has less police officers than Belmopan, being a larger municipality. So we were assured that would be fixed. The minister of police was adamant in that he will ensure that his officers do right by San Ignacio, Santa Elena, and the surrounding communities. But I also think that not only in terms of the number of police officers, because that will also increase when they build the new police station in Santa Elena. But also to see how they can get more equipment, vehicles, especially so that they can do more patrols and be able to respond to calls from the public as soon as possible.”
