Tonight, two men remain in the custody of Orange Walk police pending investigation for arson of a BSI cane field. As we told you last night, BSI security called police telling them that they found two men setting fire to a cane field in the San Lorenzo area. There are also reports of shots fired. Police responded and caught the two suspects on the road, impounded their pickup truck and detained then at the police station. It's huge news because one of the men is Efrain Novelo the personal security guard of PUP politician Ramon Monchie Cervantez. The pickup he was in belongs to Cervantez - and so it seems to put the aspiring candidate in a bad light. But today he told our colleagues at CTV-3 that there is a counter-narrative, another story which puts his security guard on a normal work errand - and wrongly arrested by police. Here's that version of events:...
Ramon "Monchie" Cervantez
"I haven't spoken to him, but I'm getting mixed reports. Yesterday when I was apprised of the situation, I was made to understand as if he and another guy were caught at the fields, burning them and then the security appeared and shots were fired and that they sped off and the police followed behind them. That's the impression that was given to me, they impression I had up to last night. This morning, one of our drivers, who every morning picks up Mennonite that works for us at the quarry, called me and said 'the Mennonite wants to speak to you'. so I spoke to him, he told me that he had brought down a water pump from the compressor yesterday and brought it to Orange Walk but couldn't get 
it at Westrac. 'By the way' he said, he came with Alpuche in the pickup, because apparently the supervisor there had called Alpuche to go get the part. So he said that Alpuche arrived with the pickup and he not only gave him the part but got into the vehicle. He got in and took a ride to Orange Walk, but then he said that coming to Orange Walk right after crossing the San Antonio bridge, maybe about a quarter mile down, that's where to police detained the pickup and from there took them to the police station. I have no involvement in whatever happened there. I have in fact denounced such actions as, burning cane. My conscience is clear and I don't fear lies. I stand up to lies that are been told, and that is why I called in to the talk shows this morning to explain what went on, especially with these new developments. I would like to add also that as far as I know, I don't know with what those guys would have shot. Because anyone could tell you that in that pickup there has never been a gun, not on the person of the driver nor inside the pickup. I know that for a fact as far as I know and since the time that they murdered my father, Alpuche was hired as the driver and security. He had been assigned the pickup truck. So I don't go around much in that pickup, a few times yes. That pickup is used to transport our supporters from meeting to meeting, to do different errands for people and so. I can say that and no one can say that they have seen a gun in the pickup or on his person."
Police say they are looking into a forensic issue and charges may be laid tomorrow.
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