Families of Deceased B.D.F. Airmen Say No Compensation has been Received

Audrey Matura

Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte, following a senate meeting last Wednesday, told the media that the families of deceased B.D.F. airmen, Majors Adran Ramirez and Radford Baizar and Corporals Reynaldo Choco and Yassir Mendez, had been compensated.  The four Belize Defense Force soldiers perished in a helicopter crash on February twenty-seventh in the vicinity of Gales Point. While the AG asserted that the families had been granted one hundred thousand dollars each,  the widows of at least two of those men, as well as the mother of Major Radford Baizar, have since come forward to say that they have not received any monies and that their applications to do so are mired in the legal process.  So was the AG being disingenuous when he said that government had paid out a hundred thousand dollars to the families of each airman?  Attorney Audrey Matura represents corporals Choco and Mendez and says that to date her clients have not received a penny of the monies in payment for their losses.

Audrey Matura, Attorney-at-Law

“The government did commit to giving each one of the families a hundred thousand dollars, without accepting liability.  That means that if the families find that there is basis upon which to sue the government they can proceed, but paying them this money is not accepting liability.  There is a commitment but there has been no payment and at first I was concerned that the commitment was only said to us at a meeting, but since then I have gotten a letter, at least for the two clients that I represent which is the Mendez family and the Choco family, saying that there is going to be an ex-gratia payment approved by Cabinet in the sum of a hundred thousand dollars.  But the reason it has not been disbursed, I will say, is that at the meeting they told us that we had to get letters of administration because all these men died without a will.  During COVID we could not make that application, the court was only dealing with urgent matters.  I brought that to the attention of the Attorney General when we were at the last meeting, he, of course, was dismissive of that.  COVID happened and our clients could not submit those applications until recently, at least on my behalf, from my part I submitted for two clients.  That takes some time, it could take three months to six months.  Until they could prove that they were the administrators of the estate, we were told that they would get no money.  So it’s good for PR purposes to say that money has been paid out, but it has not been paid out.”