Former two term Belize City Mayor David Fonseca killed himself this afternoon. It happened at around 2:30 at his mother and ex-wife's residence in Stuart's Alley - which is near the Fort Street Tourism village. According to reports, he shot himself in the head with a nine-millimeter pistol. He was found in the bathroom of the house with the gun in his hand. His ex-wife Yolanda lives downstairs, while the upstairs was unoccupied - though the building is owned by his mother.
The suicide comes as a shock to the wider community where the 60-year-old Fonseca was well known and liked for his even-tempered, agreeable nature. He would have been 61 tomorrow, May first.
He was also well known as the younger brother of former PUP powerhouse Ralph Fonseca. The elder Fonseca was seen as David's political patron in the two municipal elections which he won in 1999 and 2003. He lost to Zenaida Moya in the 2006 municipal Election - and left city hall under a cloud of scandal. Fonseca was also the first cousin of current PUP Leader Francis Fonseca.
Today, with family members and party supporters looking on in stunned disbelief, his body was removed from the home at 5:15 pm.
As far as we have been able to determine - no suicide note was left - and no one can say for sure why he killed himself. Today we spoke to his long-time friend and former Deputy Mayor Danny Madrid at the scene:...
Danny Madrid - Friend
"I call him Mayor David. We were first elected in 1989 until 2006. So, both of us did 16 years at City Hall. And as far as I can recall David and myself are the longest serving elected councilors at City Hall consecutive, because possibly that some might go and some might crumble - we were there for 16 years. As mayor of the Belize City David was responsible for many improvements in this city. Maybe we might not notice it now, but we set the pace for what's happening now with David and the other city councilors. At that time there were only 9 councilors elected. At that time you had to elect a mayor yearly, which David was elected once as mayor from our councilors in 1992 and we were responsible for the first phase of infrastructure project with World Bank in Belize City. So, what happening now is just the continuation of what we started and he was responsible for that and through that we had to appoint our first city manager, our first financial manager and our first traffic manager. As a matter of fact in 1994 we inherited the traffic department in Belize City and we built the traffic department to where it is today. So I have a lot of fun memories with Mayor David. Tomorrow would have been his birthday and I can recall that we use to celebrate his birthday on Labor Day with all the staff and eat some nice cake and food. The staff like him so much that they would celebrate birthday with him. I can also recall that David had every week his Wednesday clinic` and I could recall going to City Hall and seeing the line - going all downstairs waiting to see the mayor and the mayor would not leave City Hall until he has seen the last person and that's true. So, he was a very good, caring and understanding mayor. I have received phone calls from some of the former employees who are still there and they are so sad by what has happened."
Monica Bodden
"Being a close friend of Mr. Fonseca, did this news come as a total surprise to you?"
Danny Madrid - Friend
"I was very shocked. As a matter of fact I didn't know what to say. I said 'I can't believe this.' I had to make some calls to actually confirmed, because I had never seen that in David. He was always a strong person to me. He is very quiet and doesn't speak much, but he is a person of less words but more action."
This evening at City Hall, a wreath was hung in memory of the two term Mayor.
David Fonseca was the biological father of two children.
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