Julius to Howell: Don’t Charge Tire Fire Protestors

Howell Gillett

The Cayo South Area Representative also called out the officer commanding Belmopan, Senior Superintendent Howell Gillett. Gillett told News Five on Monday that while the search was continuing for murder victim Mark Mendez, police would actively pursue those who burned tires on the highway last Saturday for causing a disruption of traffic activity.  The senior officer did allow that this would be secondary to the search for Mendez’s killer.  According to Espat, villagers were simply trying to get his attention – and of course, it worked.

Julius Espat

Julius Espat, Area Rep., Cayo South

“Madam Speaker, our villagers are frustrated that the system that is in place to protect them is corrupt and dysfunctional. And this was shown to the Belizean people, that frustration was shown last week Saturday when some tires were burnt in Teakettle village. Why were the tires burnt, Madam Speaker? Well, the villagers as you have seen have been trying to communicate with Government, trying to communicate with the authorities; and nobody is paying them any attention. And therefore, and it may sound silly, but they are resorting to smoke signals. And it seemed to have worked, because as the smoke emerged from the burned tires, the police were there immediately. But what is annoying me the most is that the senior commander in Belmopan wants to arrest twenty villagers because they were only trying to gain the attention of the Police Force to be there to protect them. My advice to the Superintendent in charge of Belmopan: be careful! We don’t want to see a problem. We are in a serious situation; the police need to find a way to work with the villagers. We are drastically in need of protection and attention.”