FECTAB’s fiery press conference to clear Yhony Rosado’s name

The Federation of Cruise Tourism Associations of Belize, FECTAB, held a press briefing this morning to discuss details of a longstanding rift between executive member Yhony Rosado and rival tour operator Vitalino Reyes, among other pressing issues within the industry.  On Monday, Rosado told News Five that he is being discriminated against by the Belize Tourism Board, following an incident during which he was allegedly embroiled in a physical altercation with Reyes on Boxing Day 2013.  An appearance before a tour operators licensing committee last Thursday, the day before he was arraigned on a charge of disorderly conduct stemming from that incident, confirmed Rosado’s suspicion that he was deliberately being singled out by BTB for his outspokenness on the state of the tourism sector.  Today, flanked by attorney Kareem Musa, FECTAB executives, as well as COLA President Giovanni Brackett, the proprietor of Cave-tubing.com spoke candidly about the situation, maintaining his innocence.  According to Musa, there is a move afoot to derail Rosado’s business.

Kareem Musa

Kareem Musa, Attorney for Yhony Rosado

“In the year 2012, Vitalino Reyes went to the police department in Belmopan, on August twenty-fourth, 2012 and he made and signed a statement which said that he was not present.  I believe those of you in the media have copies of that statement and I believe it is important at this stage that you show those statements because that case is finished, but the tribulations of Yhony continue with this very same individual.  That case is long gone and Yhony hasn’t even taken an action and I’ve advised him to take an action for malicious prosecution Yhony.  Vitalino Reyes signed a statement in which he said that he was not at home on August twenty-fourth, he received a call, he received a call from, I believe, his daughter-in-law saying that Yhony pulled a gun on Vitalino’s son.  Well it appeared that the police department was not satisfied with that statement so seven days later Vitalino Reyes went back to the police station and he signed a new statement on the August thirty-first, 2012 in which he now puts himself on the scene.  So he goes from seven days earlier saying that, “I received a call from my daughter-in-law that Yhony pulled a gun.”  Di police seh bwai dat no enough fi convict Yhony, you haffi seh you di deh.  So now Vitalino, along with the police, in my mind it is clear collusion with the police, went to the police station seven days later and said, “You know what, I was there.  I saw Yhony pull the gun.” 

Vitalino Reyes

A blatant and outright lie against his competitor. So we have the historical context of Yhony Rosado building a dot com, becoming a success story, his competitor building a similar type website, he’s benefiting on the success of Yhony now, piggybacking on the success of Yhony and now he is getting his share in the market.  But he is not happy with that, he wants Yhony to go down.  He wants to bring down this good man, he wants to tarnish his name, he wants the B.T.B. to revoke his license.  So having failed at using the police department to bring down Yhony Rosado he is now using the B.T.B.  So now we see the B.T.B. taking on the role that Mr. Vitalino wants them to take on to bring down Yhony Rosado.  We, and I, speaking as his attorney, will not stand for that.  I am taking an action with Yhony’s instructions because I think he has had enough, he is a businessman, ih noh like bother with court but I think he has seen the light.  I think he sees the direction that this thing is going that they will stop at nothing until his license is revoked.”