Manny Heredia Will Not Be Charged for Mass Gathering

There are no charges for Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia following the viral images of a mass gathering in front of his house last Friday. Videos and pictures show Heredia and his family on their veranda in San Pedro giving out “assistance” to residents using a string to lower the assistance to the crowd.  The video and pictures have sparked outrage as they show the blatant disregard for measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But tonight, Commissioner Chester Williams says there is an explanation for what transpired and so there is no charge for the Minister.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The truth is when I saw those photographs, knowing that San Pedro is the epicenter for the virus in Belize, I got on the phone immediately with Mr. Noble and he said Commissioner, I received the information earlier and addressed the issue earlier and the crowd has been dispersed.  They looked into the matter to see what caused the crowd to be there because people need to understand that gatherings at this time are not advisable and prohibited by law. The police can’t be everywhere all the time and so we expect that members of the public will act responsibly and I had asked Mr. Noble to investigate to see what had caused the situation and he had said to me that the area representative had invited ten persons at intervals to come and get the supplies he wanted to give them but it seems like the ten that he told to come at the particular time told another ten and that amount told another ten and instead of ten people showed up a whole crowd showed up. He also said to me that it was the area rep who called him when he saw the crowd and asked him to send police to disperse the crowd. So, in that instance there is nothing I can do to the area representative so it is not like he invited the crowd there in large numbers and he did what he could done to ensure that the matter was addressed quickly b the police.”