Important Note: This Internet version of 7 News is a verbatum
transcript of our evening television news script. Many interviews on our newscast
are conducted in Creole. In the interest of clarity for our foreign readers,
we attempt to paraphrase the Creole quotes in English
Yesterday's murder up north in the secluded community of Consejo, Corozal leaves more questions than answers. Jomarie Lanza visited the village and here's what she found out today.
It was here behind his home at the entrance of Consejo village, Corozal, 29 year old Johnny Arana was gunned down just after 5:00 yesterday evening.
According to a report, Arana was spraying herbicide in an empty lot he owned beside his house when a man dressed in full black emerged from the bushes nearby and opened fire on him.
Arana was found by his younger sister and a number of 7.62 expended casings - consistent with an assault rifle - were found at the scene. There was no robbery element - so it has all appearances of a hit with a high powered assault rifle. The area is quite secluded and it's about a 15 minute drive from Corozal Town - so it was clearly not a random ambush.
While his body is awaiting a post mortem examination at the morgue, police are also attempting to retrieve and review surveillance footage from the area.
According to neighbors a relative of Arana was murdered under the same circumstances in the village a few years ago. Family members declined to comment.
Police sources have told us that based on the type of weapon used, it's consistent with attacks by narcos.
A wanted man has been captured after 8 months on the run. Dimas Duarte was captured in Honduras and deported to Belize to face charges.
Duarte is the former special constable who allegedly used a licensed weapon to kill Erik Estrada in a bar brawl in Billy White village in August of 2023. Estrada was killed when he was hit by as many as 11 gunshots.
The victim's family said at the time that Duarte was a troublemaker who had been threatening the family ever since he arrived in the village.
Later checks showed that Duarte had been close to police and also had a licensed weapon.
He went on the run immediately after the murder. He is expected to face charges for it now.
Yesterday we told you that 46-year-old taxi driver Bruce Manger experienced a harrowing incident after he was kidnapped, tied to a tree, and abandoned at mile 11 on the George Price Highway. The kidnappers stole his vehicle and two thousand dollars that was inside. Since then, the police have recovered the vehicle and it now sits at the Raccoon Street police station. It is unclear if the money was recovered or if any suspects have been detained. Mangar today declined an interview.
A woman is in the hospital after she was injured in a fire this morning. It was around 10 when flames broke out and the woman was forced to risk her own life to save her 2-year-old son. While she also survived the fire, everything she, her son, and the homeowner, Michael "Bibby" Gill possessed is now gone. Courtney Menzies spoke with Gill today and has this story.
This morning, Michael Gill was at work as usual, when he found out that the home he'd been living in for 19 years had gone up in smoke.
He rushed back, but it was too late:
Michael "Bibby" Gill, Fire Victim "Around 10:00 my little brother called me and told me my house was on fire. I was all the way in Bermudian Landing working and I had to cancel work and come in to see what was happening. When I reached back, that's what I saw, everything destroyed, everything, a lot of remembrance, a lot of things destroyed."
Courtney Menzies: "Do you know what caused the fire?"
Michael "Bibby" Gill, Fire Victim "I'm not so sure what caused the fire because it's just sketchy things I'm hearing. I'm not so sure, so I don't want to say."
But while he lost everything he owned, a young mother and child was dangerously close to losing his life.
Michael "Bibby" Gill, Fire Victim "A young lady and her son, she got burnt bad, she's in the hospital right now. She had to throw her son from the upstairs verandah to downstairs."
Courtney Menzies: "Is the child okay?"
Michael "Bibby" Gill, Fire Victim "Yes, the child is okay, but she isn't so okay."
Courtney Menzies: "How badly did she get injured?"
Michael "Bibby" Gill, Fire Victim "I'm not sure, I haven't gone to check on her yet."
Courtney Menzies: "Has she said anything about how she tried to escape?"
Michael "Bibby" Gill, Fire Victim "I haven't had any talking with her yet, she had no talking with anybody, because she went straight to the hospital."
Now, Gill is asking for the public's assistance:
Michael "Bibby" Gill, Fire Victim "The whole house is destroyed, I need some 2x4, some zinc, some beaver board. Whatever people could help with, I'd appreciate."
And that was the second house in Belize City in 24 hours that was destroyed by a fire. The first happened yesterday morning on Magazine Road. According to reports, the fire started after a 16-year-old student lit the stove and started cooking. In the middle of it, he went outside to continue washing, and about two minutes later, he noticed the smoke coming from inside.
No one was injured in this fire.
If you would like to assist Gill, he can be reached at phone number 631-1499.
Former Coast guard officer, Keyren Tzib today had her bail revoked.
That's after the 33 year old missed her sentencing date for the attempted murder of her fellow coast guard colleague Kurt Hyde.
The sentencing was to take place this morning, but when Tzib did not show up the court was informed that she had COVID and was unable to attend. No medical documentation was submitted to support her claims. Justice Candance Nanton noted that Tzib had also failed to live up to the conditions of her bail and revoked it. She ordered her immediate arrest. When she is arrested she is to be remanded to prison until her new sentencing date set for May 10th.
Tzib was represented by Arthur Saldivar in court who says that he is simply assisting her former attorney Darrel Bradley with the case. Here's what he shared about the current ongoing matter.
Arthur Saldivar, Attorney Miss Tzib is still represented by Mr. Bradley and his firm. I have come on to assist join the team, so to speak, with a view to giving Miss Tzib as many options as possible going forward. Now, as you know Miss Tzib was convicted of attempted murder on the 13th March and there were certain conditions imposed on her for bail extended to a convict person. Given her state emotionally and psychologically and given the voluminous conditions she was unable to fulfil and was found in breach. As a result, bail was revoked, the pending sentencing on the 10th May."
"We are now in a position where we are preparing submissions for the 10th of May. As you know this is a very tragic situation, Miss Tzib was shining light for the Coast Guard was one of the first females to join and not only that, but her academic acumen she was on a trajectory to do great things in that institution. It's unfortunate that the institution that she choose to serve actually marshalled itself against her to bring about a very unfortunate incident."
Two parents have been charged for cruelty to children including abandonment after they allowed their 14 year old daughter to live with an older man for whom she became pregnant.
The minor had been living with a 23 year old man on San Pedro since August of 2023. When the social services department intervened, the child was 22 weeks pregnant. The male was arrested and charged for unlawful sexual intercourse. While her parents from San Pablo village were detained on Thursday and both charged for Cruelty to children including abandonment.
To protect the child's identity, we cannot disclose names.
We've told you about the illegal logging taking place more than 2 kilometers inside the Colombia Forest Reserve, with the Guatemalans even building bridges to haul timber across to their side of the border.
The PM said earlier this week that it's a delicate issue and that in some instances the OAS has to verify whether they are in fact in Belize. We note that the adjacency zone only extends one kilometer inside Belizean territory and these incursions pass the two kilometer mark - so the OAS should play no role.
Yesterday the BDF Commander explained that sometimes that verification takes months, and the illegal loggers continue to cut trees in the reserve. In the case of the bridges that were destroyed, he said the BDF reported those from last year.
Brig. General Azariel Loria, Commander, BDF "We have to, whenever we encounter plantations, roads that are built by Guatemalans, whoever, if it is within the 1 kilometer buffer zone from the border, one kilometer to the east of Belizean territory, we have to report it to the Ministry of National Defense and ask for a verification to occur. Sometimes the verification takes months, the OAS have told us at certain meetings that sometimes they do not want to go and do the verifications because they're scared of entering certain areas because of the narco activities that are happening on that side of the border. We always tell them but we can escort you from our side but it's too remote, it's too far away, and they mentioned to us that they will lose the neutrality because they are an independent entity and they're support to conduct the operations independently."
"The bridge, one of the bridges falls within the one kilometer from the border to one kilometer to the east, we have reported that bridge from sometime last year and it has not been verified. We couldn't wait any longer and we destroyed it because they constructed another bridge so it was two bridges that were at that trail that they have so we went and destroyed. They came back about a week after, the same Guatemalans, and they built it over again so we went back and destroyed it yet again. And we are monitoring the areas."
And Loria also explained that the BDF alone cannot contain the illegal activity occurring in the Colombia Forest Reserve. He told us that there needs to be more collaboration with the Forest Department and an NGO like FCD to tackle the vastness of the reserve.
Brig. General Azariel Loria, Commander, BDF "The reserve, the Columbia Forest Reserve is not like the Chiquibul where there is a set or a group of environmentalists that look after the Chiquibul. In the Colombia Forest, there is none. We were trying to encourage others to try to link up or coordinate with the Forest Department so that they could co-manage and we could assist and we believe that that is the primary responsibility for the Forest Department and whoever wants to co-manage it to assist. Again, the Colombia Forest is vast, a lot of acres, a lot of jungle, and we have two observation posts in that area, one on the outskirts and that is the Santa Rosa post and the Machakil Ha. We acknowledge that there is a lot of illegal logging going on and this is not just for this year, all the years it's the same thing during the dry season, that is when the villagers from across - because they have villages strategically set up along the border and that is very problematic to us especially when they do not want to abide by the confidence building measures because they too, on their side, the Guatemalans, specifically the Guatemalan Army have been, as part of their regulations, they are to dissuade the villagers from encroaching into Belize and obviously they're not doing that, they not living up to the part of the confidence building measures."
"We would need more assistance from the Forest Department, a co-management, and NGO, or whoever that is willing to do like what FCD in co-managing, preserving the environment to come and assist because our primary role there is to maintain the sovereignty of Belize and dealing with the Guatemalan Armed Forces."
And while, on many occasions, the BDF is forced to wait for further instruction before acting in the reserve, the same goes for their operations in the Sarstoon. Yesterday you saw the Guatemalan Armed Forces brazenly enter our waters as they followed behind our team's vessel, which had members of the Coast Guard and the Brigadier General onboard. One of the soldiers, in Spanish, spoke to Commander Azariel Loria, telling him that the vessel was in Guatemalan waters, and that they didn't want problems, but they would accompany the group.
Loria expressed to them that that side of the river was in Belizean territory, but he made no move to confront them about crossing the boundary. In fact, he was very relaxed while speaking to the GAF soldiers, which shocked many people.
Today, in a recorded statement, the Leader of the Opposition said that Loria's laidback approach was the fault of the government's failure to establish a Sarstoon protocol.
Voice of: Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition "Incompetent Briceno's failure to deliver promised Sarstoon protocol leads to continued Guatemalan incursions. The opposition registers its condemnation of the Guatemalan armed forces' breach our territorial integrity by entering Belizean waters to obstruct our military personnel from completing a trip around our Sarstoon island with members of the press and other distinguished invited guests of our Sarstoon forward operating base earlier on April 25th."
"While the United Democratic Party commends the members of our armed forces for exercising restraint in order to ensure the safety of civilians on board, we emphatically deplore the government's inability to deliver on the Sarstoon protocol they promise while campaigning to form government."
"According to individuals present on the Sarstoon trip, heavily armed Guatemalan soldiers approach the Belizean vessel carrying Brigadier General Azariel Loria and scolded them for being in Guatemala's territory, which is completely incorrect and abhorrent."
"Independent media reports go on to say that General Loria, in front of members of the Belizean press corps, did not respond. We find no fault in the general's decision. However, we blame the government for putting the general in a situation where he is under attack and aggressed by bullish Guatemalan armed forces. The opposition calls on Prime Minister Briceno and Foreign Minister Fonseca to summon the Guatemalan ambassador to Belize at once to protest this breach of our borders."
"An urgent diplomatic note must be sent. An engagement must be made with the Guatemalan President, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of National Defence to underscore the need for the Guatemalan armed forces to adhere to international law, confidence building measures and other protocols established by the group of friends."
Last night you heard Minister Julius Espat on the news venting about party matters and questioning whether divisional challenges will be allowed.
He called it cherry picking:
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH "The People's United Party has rules and conventions are not open. Today.we are having a meeting at 2:00 to decide if conventions will be open or not. I want to see the cherry picking. I really want to see it."
Well, the PUP national executive did meet yesterday and they did agree to allow conventions - in all decisions except Toledo East. For the other 30 constituencies, prospective standard bearers can apply starting today - right up to May 24th. That will trigger its own kind of silly season inside the PUP - where a few current area reps are expected to face stiff challenges at conventions. Most will be endorsed - but that decision will be made after May 24 when the application window closes.
And so what about Toledo East - where the seat is now vacant and a by-elections has been triggered?
Well, the party decided to make no public discussion of that seat for 7 days and a decision regarding that constituency will be announced next Friday.
The Auditor General's Office has beef with president of the PSU, Dean Flowers.
A signed letter from about a dozen Audit Department Employees refer to what they call "baseless statements" he made when criticizing the Auditor General, Dorothy Bradley.
They said his statements - and those made from this news desk - can undermine the integrity, professionalism and independence of their office.
We asked Flowers today if he's going to apologize or backtrack:
Dean Flowers, President, PSU "The letter is viewed as clearly a group of staff being coerced and perhaps misguided in signing because there was absolutely nothing spoken about the quality of work of the staff. It was about the leadership who in my humble view has not made any significant efforts in resolving the grievances that exist within the department and neither have there been audits of substance that would help in detailing how our funds are being spent and holding those accountable who are fleecing those."
"Now the letter, since it would appear that that is what the media wishes to sensationalize, would have said not much. It would have referenced a commentary by Channel 7 in terms of the manner in which Jules would have referred to the office as a spinning political wheel, I believe it is, and the offices would have voiced their support for the auditor general."
"What the letter failed to address is the continued victimization and eight years of grievances that the staff is going through and so it's a clear divide and conquer by a handful of staff who clearly might have the reasons for penning that letter and that's their right."
"But they don't have the right to say to the representative of the workers that have been victimized and continue to be victimized and continue to be aggrieved for the past eight years that the union does not have the right to speak up on behalf of those workers. I would hope that they would think about revising their letter and detail their accounts and the audits that have been done over the last two years under the auspices of the leadership of the Auditor General rather than making blanket statements."
"I would also like to counsel that group of members to kindly refer themselves to the budget estimates and the budget performances. Kindly refer yourself to that before you allow yourself to be manipulated to signing these blanket statements."
"You will see, and I have those, I can present those to you, that where audits are concerned there is a number of fix in terms of the amount of audits. They would have spoken of recommendations. You would look at the audit estimates and their report in the audit estimates for the past two years, and there is not a single recommendation issued."
"So I really don't know what they're referring to in the latter."
And we also asked the PSU president about the Labour Day holiday. It's one of those occasions that has always been celebrated on May 1st - regardless of which day of the week that date falls. However, this year, it's being observed on Monday, April 29th, to make way for a long weekend. Flowers said that while it is the purview of the Home Affairs Minister, he is not surprised since the government is not exactly "labour friendly."
Dean Flowers, President, PSU "First and foremost, that is the prerogative of the Minister of New Growth Industries and his committee. In 2020, when we started engaging with the new administration, I would have made the statement that it is my humble opinion based on the negotiations that were happening at that time and the manner in which workers were being treated in the public and private sector, that we're not dealing with a labour-friendly government."
"That position holds to the date. We're not dealing with a labour-friendly government. And so I'm not surprised that they would have shifted the holiday up rather than observing the day on the first of May."
"But that's not a fight again solely for the Public Service Union. I think those are questions that ought to be placed at the foot of the wider labour organization or the national umbrella organization."
"But from my humble perspective, we have not viewed the government as being labour-friendly. And so the move of the day does not surprise me."
A Belizean couple living in the United States is giving back to the local healthcare system. Edward and Patricia Lord have made an enormous donation to the Ministry of Health, which includes patient care monitors, defibrillators, hospital beds, gowns, and thousands of surgical steel instruments. The entire list of items donated is 53 pages long, and on top of that, they also donated $500,000 US worth of additional supplies and equipment to the KHMH.
But why have they made it their mission to help upgrade Belize's healthcare system? Well, Edward Lord has worked in the healthcare system in the US for decades, and he has access to plenty of equipment. The problem is, though, the finance required to transport them. They've been planning this donation for a decade and were finally able to gather the funds. But according to Patricia Lord, it proved to be a major headache:
All the equipment has not yet been distributed, but hospitals around the country should expect their share of the shipment.
Through its first three and a half years, the Briceno Administration has by and large managed to avoid any public bickering at the cabinet level. And that's what makes Julius Espat's scathing criticism of Economic Development CEO Osmond Martinez yesterday so remarkable. It's a Cabinet level attack on the Prime Minister's CEO - and it came just short of accusing Martinez of triggering the stress that led to Espat's death from a heart attack.
That's a tall accusation, which, we'll repeat - seems a bit much for a political newcomer to do to a 6 term area representative.
But, the allegation stands and that caused Jules Vasquez to go back into yesterday's event at the Haulover bridge which did yield tell tale signs of the tension between the Ministry of Infrastructure development and Housing and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development:
John Briceno, Prime Minister "But we must give credit to his zeal, to his energy and sometimes to his impatience in getting things done. Probably there's a lot of things I need to learn from you Julius, because he's always telling me, "you have a lot of patience!""
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH "The boss said today I am impatient. Maybe, but that's the only way you'll get things done."
And Espat says what he and his staff want to get done urgently is the Belcan bridge:
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH "Priority for us is the Belcan, We have been signaling it for three years now. If somebody gets hurt, it's going to be a problem. We have been signaling it for three years now. Our engineers just came under the bridge again. And it's obvious. The bridge that fell in Baltimore can give you an idea what can happen. It's a smaller scale. We don't have the level of traffic, but it can happen if we have enough money to spend on other things. I think we should spend on priority projects- that being one."
And this is the subject of ongoing tension with the Ministry of Finance - which has expressed concern to the MIDH about the same contractors being awarded all the big projects:
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH "Our job is to make sure that when the procurement process is done, that we follow the international financial institutions guidelines. They are the ones that lend the money and they're the ones that establish who can and who cannot bid. For example, M&M construction, in the past could not have bid on this bridge. They would not have been able to qualify, but they qualified this time because they have spent years building bridges."
"We will not allow, at least if I am at the them anybody to bid on a project that does not follow the procurement minimum qualifications that the IFI's established. And if anybody is mad with that, so be it."
Jules Vasquez "But this was the same reason the PUP vilified Imer Hernandez, but the fact is that many of those IFI level bids, he was the only one who pre-qualified because of his track record."
"What I'm saying is that you create an institutional behemoth, once..."
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH "We didn't create it."
Jules Vasquez "No, no, no. But I'm saying that you are creating one now of that's the criticism."
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH "I'll tell you who can beat on a bridge right now. Right now, at that level. You have all the road contractors, Cisco Construction, Imer can bid, right now without even thinking about it, they can pass the pre-qualification process. So that's two. You have Bannman Roadway can do it. You have Teichroeb that I believe can bid, You have one of the gentlemen from Spanish Lookout that can bid, and now Roque can bid. So you have six. I think you might have a seventh one. And so everybody has an equal opportunity to be able to win a bid."
"Who are the. Other contractors you're speaking of?"
Jules Vasquez "I heard that they are some preferred by the Ministry of Finance. I heard some like maybe those who did the bridge in San Pedro."
Julius Espat, Minister - MIDH "Maybe, you need to send me a text."
Jules Vasquez "I need I need to send you. I think I'll send them from the guys who sent me."
And while there is tension between those senior ministries - next Tuesday, after the Holiday weekend, all will be set aside when there is a special joint parliamentary service for Espat. IT will be held on Tuesday at 2:00 pm in the National Assembly chamber and you can see it live on Channel 7. Espat was first elected in 1989 and served 6 terms. He was on his 7th term at the time of his death.
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Yesterday's murder up north in the secluded community of Consejo, Corozal leaves more questions than answers. Jomarie Lanza visited the village and here's what she found out today.
A wanted man has been captured after 8 months on the run. Dimas Duarte was captured in Honduras and deported to Belize to face charges.
Yesterday we told you that 46-year-old taxi driver Bruce Manger experienced a harrowing incident after he was kidnapped, tied to a tree, and abandoned at mile 11 on the George Price Highway. The kidnappers stole his vehicle and two thousand dollars that was inside. Since then, the police have recovered the vehicle and it now sits at the Raccoon Street police station. It is unclear if the money was recovered or if any suspects have been detained. Mangar today declined an interview. 
A woman is in the hospital after she was injured in a fire this morning. It was around 10 when flames broke out and the woman was forced to risk her own life to save her 2-year-old son. While she also survived the fire, everything she, her son, and the homeowner, Michael "Bibby" Gill possessed is now gone. Courtney Menzies spoke with Gill today and has this story.
"I'm not so sure what caused the fire because it's just sketchy things I'm hearing. I'm not so sure, so I don't want to say."
Former Coast guard officer, Keyren Tzib today had her bail revoked.
Miss Tzib is still represented by Mr. Bradley and his firm. I have come on to assist join the team, so to speak, with a view to giving Miss Tzib as many options as possible going forward. Now, as you know Miss Tzib was convicted of attempted murder on the 13th March and there were certain conditions imposed on her for bail extended to a convict person. Given her state emotionally and psychologically and given the voluminous conditions she was unable to fulfil and was found in breach. As a result, bail was revoked, the pending sentencing on the 10th May."
We've told you about the illegal logging taking place more than 2 kilometers inside the Colombia Forest Reserve, with the Guatemalans even building bridges to haul timber across to their side of the border.
"We have to, whenever we encounter plantations, roads that are built by Guatemalans, whoever, if it is within the 1 kilometer buffer zone from the border, one kilometer to the east of Belizean territory, we have to report it to the Ministry of National Defense and ask for a verification to occur. Sometimes the verification takes months, the OAS have told us at certain meetings that sometimes they do not want to go and do the verifications because they're scared of entering certain areas because of the narco activities that are happening on that side of the border. We always tell them but we can escort you from our side but it's too remote, it's too far away, and they mentioned to us that they will lose the neutrality because they are an independent entity and they're support to conduct the operations independently."
And while, on many occasions, the BDF is forced to wait for further instruction before acting in the reserve, the same goes for their operations in the Sarstoon. Yesterday you saw the Guatemalan Armed Forces brazenly enter our waters as they followed behind our team's vessel, which had members of the Coast Guard and the Brigadier General onboard. One of the soldiers, in Spanish, spoke to Commander Azariel Loria, telling him that the vessel was in Guatemalan waters, and that they didn't want problems, but they would accompany the group.
Voice of: Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
Last night you heard Minister Julius Espat on the news venting about party matters and questioning whether divisional challenges will be allowed.
Dean Flowers, President, PSU
Through its first three and a half years, the Briceno Administration has by and large managed to avoid any public bickering at the cabinet level. And that's what makes Julius Espat's scathing criticism of Economic Development CEO Osmond Martinez yesterday so remarkable. It's a Cabinet level attack on the Prime Minister's CEO - and it came just short of accusing Martinez of triggering the stress that led to Espat's death from a heart attack.
"But we must give credit to his zeal, to his energy and sometimes to his impatience in getting things done. Probably there's a lot of things I need to learn from you Julius, because he's always telling me, "you have a lot of patience!""
And while there is tension between those senior ministries - next Tuesday, after the Holiday weekend, all will be set aside when there is a special joint parliamentary service for Espat. IT will be held on Tuesday at 2:00 pm in the National Assembly chamber and you can see it live on Channel 7. Espat was first elected in 1989 and served 6 terms. He was on his 7th term at the time of his death.
