Bomb Threat interrupts meeting with cane farmers

Alfredo Ortega

This morning, an unidentified male person called in a bomb threat to the Belize Biltmore Plaza just before midday. Normally that wouldn’t make the top of the news because they happen relatively frequently and are never real. But it is headline material today because when the call came in, Prime Minister Dean Barrow was in one of the hotel’s conference rooms and the media was downstairs waiting for him. News Five was told by the staff member who got the call that a man said, (Quote) “We know who is in the building and a bomb is going to go off in fifteen minutes.” (Unquote) While nobody was exactly panicked, the Prime Minister’s meeting with the BSCFA was cut short. As far as we could tell while we were there, nobody else was evacuated from the building.

Alfredo Ortega, Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, BSCFA

“That is what we were told, that is why the meeting didn’t finalize as we expected. But at least we went through the main core of our queries and they went up and said there was a bomb threat and we had to evacuate the meeting.”

Reporter

“Any suspicions as to that bomb threat?”

Alfredo Ortega

“Well I really don’t know. It was told to the Prime Minister and he passed on a message to us and he told us that we need to evacuate because of the bomb threat.”

Reporter

“And the fact that you notice nobody else was evacuated?”

Alfredo Ortega

“Well it’s very funny because they said that each and every one had to evacuate the building.”

Police officers were stationed at the entrance to the hotel when we left, and we were told that the B.D.F.’s bomb squad was on the way.