2024 - Channel 5 Belize

Belize Welcomes Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to Address Maya Indigenous Rights

Belize is taking steps to strengthen its human rights framework, particularly concerning the rights of the Maya indigenous communities in the Toledo District. From October 15 to 18, 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is visiting the country to promote human rights and enhance collaboration with local authorities.

In its statement, the IACHR stated that the visit will be led by Commissioner Jose Caballero, Second Vice-President of the IACHR and Country Rapporteur for Belize.

The IACHR delegation will meet with government officials and members of civil society to gather information on the ongoing Case 12.053. This case involves the Toledo Maya Cultural Council (TMCC) and the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA), which represent the Maya people. The groups are seeking recognition of their land rights based on their customary practices and have requested immediate protection against the logging activities.

This visit is part of the IACHR’s Strategic Five-Year Plan for the Caribbean (2023-2027), which aims to follow up on previous recommendations and includes a seminar focused on indigenous rights. The IACHR, an independent body of the Organization of American States (OAS), is dedicated to promoting and defending human rights throughout the region.

Mayor Bernard: “It’s a Supervision Issue”

The investigation into the death of 6-year-old King Shakel Wade continues. The boy’s body was recovered from a canal near Fairweather Street in Belize City after he disappeared from outside his babysitter’s home.

Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the K.H.M.H.

Yesterday, reporters asked Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner about increased safety around the canals. He said, “It’s a supervision issue, and we have had canals from I grew up. I’ve never, I think this may be one of the first incidents I’ve heard of someone falling in a canal in my entire life.”

Mayor Bernard added, “It’s a one-off type, but we can’t lose that. Listen, a child died.” Bernard said that parents have to be held accountable for their children’s whereabouts.

“Parents need to know where their children are at every given moment in time.

Child Drowns in City Canal

Child Drowns in City Canal

The body of 6-year-old King Shakel Wade was fished out of the canal near Fairweather Street in Belize City late yesterday evening.

He disappeared from outside his babysitter’s home while she attended to other children. After an hour-long search, his slippers were found floating in the canal. The Belize Coast Guard recovered his body, but attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. King-Shakel was pronounced dead at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.

Police are investigating.

Elderly Man Hospitalized After Hit and Run

Wanted Fugitive Edwin Marin Found Dead Near Patchakan

Tonight, the suspect wanted for a double murder in Corozal Town a few weeks ago has been found dead. Police officers made the grim discovery of Edwin Marin’s lifeless body on Monday night in a remote area near Patchakan Village. Marin was accused of fatally shooting his ex-common-law wife, twenty-one-year-old Deysha Hill, and her mother, forty-six-year-old Natasha Clarke. The tragic incident occurred on the morning of September ninth, after a heated argument between Marin and Hill over the custody of their two-year-old daughter. During the confrontation, Marin allegedly told Hill he would return after she refused to let him have the child. After the deadly shooting, it was believed that Hill had escaped across the northern border into Mexico. There’s also speculation that Marin’s murder might be linked to cartel activity. Here’s Commissioner of Police Chester Williams with more details.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Last night, the police in Corozal were called to one those illegal border crossing areas. Upon arrival, they countered the lifeless body of one Edwin Marin, a person who was wanted for a double murder in Corozal Town and was being sought by police for a couple of weeks now and initially we had gotten information that he had fled the country to Mexico and he was being sought both in Belize and Mexico for the purpose of being charged for the double murder in Corozal. But his body was found right on the border crossing area with injuries consistent with him being beaten to death. That’s a matter that the police are looking at at this time, trying to verify if he was killed in Belize or on the Mexico side and dragged over to the Belizean side. So we are looking at it. The body was found in Belize, and so it is going to be reflected in our murder stats. We certainly will require some assistance from the Mexican side, in terms of the investigation, so we’re just going to coordinate with our Mexican counterparts.”

Reporter

“We had heard that this individual had interactions with the cartel, the much spoken about Caborca Cartel. Might he have been killed by them?”

Chester Wiliams

“That is a possibility, it is one of our suspicions as well, but in the absence of empirical evidence to that effect, we just have to look at it as a murder and investigate it to see exactly who are behind it.”

Police Say Kidnapping Victims, Luis and Johan Camara, are Upstanding Citizens

Luis Camara and his seventeen-year-old son, Johan, were safely returned to Louisville, Corozal on Friday after being kidnapped by a Mexican cartel in the Subtiniente Lopez area of Quintana Roo. This morning, the Commissioner of Police provided more details on the incident and expressed growing concerns about cartel activity near the northern border. ComPol Williams also mentioned that police operations in the Corozal District have been significantly ramped up.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“From what we have been made to understand that that kidnapping did have to do with the cartels in Chetumal. We are happy that the outcome is what the family and the entire Belizean society had hoped for, that these two individuals were returned home alive. I can say with certainty that the family, the father and son who were kidnapped, from our records, they are not persons of questionable character. They seem to be outstanding people and so that had puzzled us as well in terms of why would they have been kidnapped. But nonetheless, we are happy that they have been returned home to their families and again, Belizeans going over to the Mexican side is something that we have to look at and decide on our own if it is that we want to go or not. The cartel issues in the Chetumal area is certainly intensifying. We maintain our strong presence in the Corozal and Orange Walk districts, in particular along the irregular border crossing area. Our northern operations are being very, very effective in keeping the cartels and their operatives at bay. It is not to say that our efforts cannot be infiltrated, but I can say to you and the Belizean people that it is going to take a lot for that to happen.”

Belizeans are Concerned About Increase in Cartel Activity in the North

The rise in cartel activity near Belize’s border with Mexico is becoming a major worry for Belizeans traveling to the neighboring country. This concern was highlighted in a recent survey by Viking Strategies. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams shared his thoughts on the poll’s findings.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The fact that we have increased accessibility to social media will certainly increase the population’s ability to be able to get news or to hear news and will make people concerned. That is a good thing, it’s not something bad and I do, contrary to what you may think, I do embrace the polling. I think that the concerns of people are legitimate. If a crime happens in a community, the whole community should be concerned. So we cannot take it as something negative, I think that the fact that more and more people are aware or are concerned of crime, it is going to have them participate more in terms of preventing crime. So I certainly support the poll and I see it as something positive and we’ll see what we can do to work more closely with the public and if you notice what we have been doing with this fourth quarter of this year, I have impressed upon my officers to do more community policing outreach. “

Mother and Daughter Charged for Obstructing Murder Investigation

A mother celebrating her fifty-first birthday feels that she and her family were mistreated by the Belize Police Department. The trouble started when she couldn’t provide surveillance footage to help with an investigation into a recent murder on Reggae Street, leading the police to break into her home. Things escalated on Friday when she and her daughter, twenty-nine-year-old Adilah Abdullah, were hit with criminal charges, including obstructing a police officer and aggravated assault. This morning, Delcia and Adilah walked to court to face separate charges related to last week’s murder of Floyd Hyde. Delcia is relieved to be out on bail after both mother and daughter were jointly charged with obstructing a police officer. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams explained what took place.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Our investigation team was in the area canvassing, looking for evidence. There is a house in the area that has a surveillance camera. The police went there and they refused to cooperate with the investigators in terms of getting the surveillance footage. I was contacted and I told the police, get a search warrant under the indictable procedures act which states that the police can go and search and confiscate any evidence that can be used in a criminal investigation. So on the strength of a police warrant, the police went to the house. The police were there with the search warrant to execute the search for the evidence that we needed and they refused to let the police in. I told the police again, jump the fence and go in. The police did so and they were able to retrieve a SIM card that had the recording, but they had deleted the recording from the SIM card. So we are applying to the court today to get a court order to search the SIM card. We do have the equipment to be able to retrieve whatever was deleted from that SIM card. We have the equipment to retrieve whatever was deleted, but we want to make sure that we do everything in accordance with the law. And so, I have said to them, make sure that they get the court order where the court will be giving the police the authority to get the SIM card and retrieve what is there.”

Reggae Street Resident Says Police Mistreated Her

The allegations against the mother and daughter are that on Thursday, October ninth, 2024, at Reggae Street, Belize City, they obstructed Cpl. Francisco Martinez while he was performing his duties. They pleaded not guilty and wanted to explain their side but were told to save it for later. Both insisted they were innocent. Adilah also faced a separate charge of aggravated assault for allegedly assaulting Detective Constable Hyra Alvarez, a female police officer, during her duties.

Delcia Abdullah, Charged for Obstruction

“They police had come to our house and broke down our doors to get to our cameras but we went to the news and told them that the camera wasn’t working. And I think because we went to the news. When we came home the evening, they came and they arrested us, so we were thinking it’s because we went to the media because we felt that we were being unjustly treated because I had told them the camera wasn’t working. It’s not like I didn’t tell them. I think they came but they were under the influence of alcohol because when I was talking to them, I could smell the alcohol to mi property.”

ComPol on Santi Ciau Jr., “It’s a rather unfortunate situation.”

Santiago Ciau Junior was laid to rest in Sittee River on Saturday afternoon. The former police officer passed away last week after battling a debilitating bone disease caused by a fall he suffered while on duty. Following his death, there has been a public outcry, with many criticizing the Social Security Board for denying his invalidity claim.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I would first like to start by expressing our sincerest condolences to the family of Santiago Ciau. That’s a police family. The father and all his sons joined the police and I think two of the sons are still with us, one at CIB in Belize City and the other one here at the academy. I must say that they are a very resourceful people and quite knowledgeable in what they do, and so we are grateful to them. It’s a rather unfortunate situation what happened to them and, again, it underscores my point earlier, in respect to social security. I don’t know what was the basis for social security not honoring his claim, but if it is that he got injured on the job, which it is that he did, he got injured on the job, then certainly social security ought to have honored his disability claim. Now note to police officers, or public officers on a whole, many a times we get injured on the job and because at that particular moment we don’t feel any pain, we think everything is okay and we don’t go to the doctor and when the effects start to affect you two or three months down the road and then you go to the doctor then social security wah seh well, this can’t be wahn on-the-job injury.’

Head-on Collision Leaves Motorcyclist Dead in Southern Belize

A tragic accident occurred on the Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway in Southern Belize on Saturday. A vehicle collided with a motorcycle traveling in the opposite direction, resulting in the death of seventeen-year-old Christian Guerra, the motorcycle driver. Assistant Commissioner Hilberto Romero mentioned that the police are investigating the incident, including whether Guerra had a valid driver’s license. Meanwhile, the vehicle’s driver, Esequias Vasquez, has been detained as part of the ongoing investigation.

ACP Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander, Eastern Division

“On Saturday the 13th of October, there was a fatal road traffic accident between miles two and three on the Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway. Police visited the area where they saw a motorcycle with extensive damage. Also seen was a Dodge Ram pickup. The motorcycle was driven by Christian Guerra and the Dodge Ram was being driven by Esequias Vasquez. Christian Guerra was taken for treatment where he succumbed to his injuries. Esequias Vasquez is presently in police custody awaiting charges in reference to this fatal road traffic accident.”