P.U.P. Leader Demands Full Investigation

P.U.P. Leader Francis Fonseca today offered the official position of his party on the murder of Tourism Police Officer Danny Conorquie. According to Fonseca, the party is saddened and troubled…but more than that, there is overwhelming outrage.

Francis Fonseca, P.U.P. Leader

Francis Fonseca

“We are really outraged at what has taken place. We understand that there is an ongoing investigation, but we are certainly outraged at what we have leanrt so far about that investigation where apparently Guatemalan nationals came into Belize and executed our special constable at his job site. I just spoke about this issue during my independence address on September twenty-first, about this attack on our national patrimony where in effect we have Guatemalan nationals who are going into our rainforest, our national reserves mining gold, farming illegally, extracting xaté and other artefacts illegally. And I think this incident, while it obviously did not take place in the reserve, bring home to light what is taking place; that individuals that are crossing our borders, in effect violating our territorial integrity, attacking our national integrity as a country. And that has to be addressed. It is a very, very serious issue. That’s why I raised it in my independence address. We need to put in place urgently the security infrastructure to properly defend the territory of Belize, to defend our territorial borders. We are calling on the government to aggressively investigate this matter, to leave no stones unturned. We expect that the highest levels of our government that there will be intervention with the relevant counterparts in Guatemala. If we need the intervention of the O.A.S. on this issue, we are calling on the government to ensure that we get the O.A.S.’ involvement so that the Belizean people can be given a full response to what is taking place. And determining exactly who should be held accountable, why this happen and how we are going to ensure that this does not continue to happen in Belize.”

Fonseca says the death of the Special Constable raises the question of how secure are our other officers working to protect Belize’s sovereignty and resources.