Masked men hold up hundreds of people on the Hummingbird Highway
The Hummingbird Highway was abuzz with activity on Saturday morning, but none of the action had anything to do with the normal behavior of rational people. A group of bandidos went on a rampage near Roaring River, just outside Belmopan, and when it was all over, one man was dead, several others were injured and hundreds of people were just plain happy to be alive.
Luis Pena, Jr., Witness
“They are really professionals. If you could look right now, you would see that if you are trying to escape, you can’t go this way and you can’t go that way. Because if you tried to run, they told us that they had someone special who would go after us, so there was no where you could escape.”
Luis Pena Jr., was one of close to four hundred hostages who were held up for more than three hours on the Hummingbird Highway on Saturday. Pena and three other men had just left Belmopan in a Big H company truck en route to Stann Creek. Three miles into the journey, however, they noticed a vehicle on its side, in a ditch on the right hand side of the highway. Thinking it was an accident, the men decided to investigate.
Luis Pena, Jr.
“So what we did was slowed down a little and we drove up and we didn’t see anyone so we came up right on this piece here and that was when the guys came out of the bushes with their machine guns.”
Stunned and confused, Pena said at first he thought the men were part of some military exercise, but soon realized that something was terribly wrong.
Luis Pena, Jr.
“It wasn’t until they told us to get down, that we found out that it was a real life situation… something that we had never before, something that didn’t happen, that we aren’t used to having in Belize.”
According to Pena, there were a total of seven masked men. Two of them were fully clothed in what looked like military fatigue and all were heavily armed with weapons that included A-K 47’s and nine millimeter pistols.
Luis Pena, Jr.
“The uniforms they had on was a dark blue uniform like nearly close to the color you are having and they had pads like the uniforms used by the military men used in Melchor De Mencos. I know them because sometimes I cross the border to buy and you always see them to the back of the trucks. So that is how I know their uniforms.”
Pena said that shortly after the men ordered them to lie down, one of them jumped into the truck, drove it a short distance away and used it to block off the highway. In all seventy five vehicles were forced off the highway and the occupants ordered to lie face down on the road. According to Pena, during the hold-up, the robbers referred to themselves as Guerillas without borders and that no one would get hurt if they followed their instructions. But tragedy struck shortly after a Z-Line passenger bus and two buses from James Bus Line arrived on the scene.
Raymond Dawson, Conductor, James Bus Line
“He was one of the worst that was out there. Cause he di tell we plain that from when he born, he di kill and he will dead di kill. He no ‘fraid to kill nobody.”
Raymond Dawson, who was the conductor on one of the James buses said after they were forced to slow down, the men approached and ordered him along with his forty four passengers off the bus. As the passengers came out, the men relieved them of their jewelry and cash. Dawson said things were going in an orderly fashion, until one of the passengers, nineteen year old B.D.F. volunteer, Jenaro Che, walked up to one of the robbers and handed him one dollar. This apparently angered the gunman and he responded by shooting Che in the head.
Raymond Dawson
“Then he tell him, he still no dead. He seh kill him, kill him, kill him and the boy gone back and shoot him again. When he shoot him the boy on the ground just shake up and then he no move no more. Then he ordered three of us who were their hostage, he ordered three of them to pick up the dead man and bring him and put him in front of everybody. Make they see that if they start to search and they found one dollar he will start to kill.”
But shortly after the men jumped inside a Dogde Ram, belonging to one of the hostages and sped off towards Belmopan. But as the armed bandits were fleeing, they came face to face with three police officers.
Luis Pena, Jr.
“They jumped into the vehicle. They came. We didn’t see anything, but we heard the gunshots as you pass the curve.”
The police pickup was sprayed with bullets, during which the officers received injuries to their shoulders. The quick thinking of the driver who quickly reversed the vehicle may have saved their lives. While it is believed that the highway robbers have long jumped the Western Border, the getaway vehicle was found abandoned near Arenal Village, just outside of Benque Viejo del Carmen. Inside the vehicle was the body of a man believed to be one of the robbers.
Police in Belmopan declined comment on Saturday’s incident on the Hummingbird Highway, until Tuesday morning. Answers to questions from the media about the hold-up will likely be made by National Security Minister Dean Barrow who will be hosting a press conference at ten o’clock Tuesday morning at the Radisson Fort George Hotel in Belize City.
