4 Years Later, Families of Fallen B.D.F. Soldiers Still Not Compensated

Four years ago to date, a crew of Belize Defense Force airmen, including majors Adran Ramirez and Radford Baizar, along with corporals Yassir Mendez and Reinaldo Choco, perished in a helicopter crash in Belize District.  They were reportedly conducting aerial surveillance near the location where a drug plane had landed sometime earlier that night.  The accident happened in the wee small hours of February 27^th, 2020 as the men set out from the B.D.F. Air Wing in Ladyville and were flying over Western Lagoon.  In the wake of the tragedy, the Government of Belize, under the Barrow administration, promised to compensate the families of the deceased men.  For the wives of Yassir Mendez and Reinaldo Choco, who opted not to settle with G.O.B. and proceed with civil claims in the High Court, they are yet to receive anything.

 

Audrey Matura, Attorney-at-law

“The point where we are is that we finally got a court date again and that date is sixth of March at 9:30 a.m., before a new judge, Justice Tawanda Hondora.  Now this is good news in that finally it’s assigned a new judge.  It’s bad news in that it’s the third judge we have and it’s good news and bad news in that the notice says it’s a mention.  A mention means that you’re not going to try any issue that day which in fairness to the judge, you can’t.  I mean, here’s a new judge being given this file, the judge has the right to go through everything and manage it.”

 

 

Isani Cayetano

“Explain to me how the two families have been holding over.  I assuming that they were waiting for this settlement for them to be financially able to handle their affairs.  What has happened in the interim?”

 

Audrey Matura

“Well it’s interesting.  The two families, although I represent both of them, each has their own circumstances.  In the case of the Choco family, the good news was that Mrs. Choco is still a teacher.  She was a teacher and she still is a teacher. Financially, she needs to still be working and seeing how she can put her way through school.  But she’s still in a better position in that at least she has a career.  In terms of the Mendez family, that’s far more difficult because Mrs. Mendez has always been a stay-at-home mom.  Her work, her full-time work was looking after their three children and all children are minors, so her husband was absolutely the sole breadwinner, sole breadwinner.  So she has had to find a way to figure out how to make ends meet. So it’s hard for them personally, compounded now about the financial setback.  It is, and no matter what the settlement is, just having this case hanging over, you want some finality and that finality is not there.  Every year, when the twenty-seventh of February comes around, it just opens back those wounds.”