Minister of Home and Foreign Affairs says Police will take charge

The hit on the well-known bus driver, as well as the vicinity of the deadly spray of bullets on Belize’s side of the Adjacency Zone, has raised serious concerns about border security, outside of the business hours of the Belize Western Border. This morning, Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Elrington shared details of the harrowing incident, before commenting on the involvement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in investigating the murder.

Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Home Affairs

Wilfred Elrington

“I was informed by the CEO of the Ministry of National Security, Home Affairs, CEO Lovell of the death of a Belizean.  His name, I think, is Carlos Manzanero and he’s a bus driver.  Apparently he was socializing at a bar in the Adjaceny Zone area, the Belize side, when an individual came up to him out of a car, a maroon colored car, fired about eight shots into him and then took off.  That person was subsequently taken to the hospital in San Ignacio where he was pronounced dead on arrival.”

Isani Cayetano

“What are the procedures going forward, in terms of any involvement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?”

Wilfred Elrington

“Normally, whenever it occurs in the Adjacency Zone we would ask the OAS Office to verify the location.  We don’t do much more than that in these incidents which take place between civilians, we simply get verification of the location where the incident occurred but we don’t do much more than that.  The matter is looked into almost exclusively by the Belize Police [Department] and whenever there is any suggestion or allegation that the perpetrator of the offense, the one who did it had anything to do with Guatemala, the Belize police would enlist the support of the Guatemalan police in trying to investigate and apprehend the person who committed the offense.”