Gov’t compensates Guatemalan shooting victims

Family members of three Guatemalan men shot and killed by a Belizean security patrol last November have been awarded payments from the Belize government. According to Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, David Gibson, on May sixteenth Belize’s ambassador to Guatemala, Moises Cal presented cheques valued at a total of forty-eight thousand U.S. dollars to the five dependents of Jesus Ramirez Solano, Jesus Ramirez Hicho and Virgilio Ramirez Hicho. Gibson says the money will be divided between the victims’ children based on their age, with the younger ones receiving a greater share. The three children of Jesus Ramirez Sr., aged sixteen, fourteen and ten have been given approximately thirteen thousand, nine hundred U.S. dollars. Jesus Ramirez Jr. had a one year old son, who received sixteen thousand, seven hundred U.S. dollars. The son of Virgilio Ramirez, a three-month-old baby boy, was given seventeen thousand, six hundred. Medical and funeral expenses were also paid for by the Belizean government. Witnessing the handing over were representatives of the Council of Investigations for the Development of Central America. The three Ramirez men, a father and two sons, died on November twenty-second of last year when they allegedly attacked members of the Belize Police Force and the Belize Defence Force patrolling near San Vicente Village in the Toledo District. Despite initial allegations by family members that the men had been murdered by the patrol, a Belizean commission of inquiry determined that the joint security team had acted in self-defence and performed extremely well under the circumstances. The Government of Belize has categorically stated that any payment to the Ramirez family is being done on what is called an ex gratia basis, meaning that it is given as a humanitarian gesture, and does not imply any admission of guilt. The making of such payments was recommended by an O.A.S. appointed investigator, Sergio Caramagna, who concluded that the patrol used excessive force when dealing with the aggression by the three members of the Ramirez family, who were armed with machetes.