More than 17 expended shells were collected from the scene of last night's murder in Patchakan village. The blood stained park bench and grass now haunts the family of the 28 year old Benito Canela, a father of two, and cane farmer who had moved to the village a little under a year ago to be with his common law wife Indy Ruiz. The park in front of her mother's home was an oft - frequented place of socialization for the family, and it is where Ruiz saw her partner take his last breath, after an unknown gunman boldly waltzed up to them in front of numerous relatives and began unloading bullets, stopping at nothing until Canela was dead.

Indy Ruiz, Common law of deceased "We had just finished having dinner and we always go out and sit down there at night. He was walking out and i asked him I asked him where he was going and he said he is going to call his daughter because it was her birthday. And so he said lets go so you can tell her happy birthday as well. I went with him and we sat down there he took out his phone to call his daughter and she wasn't answering. I told him it's Thursday and on Thursdays they go to church. we were all sitting, talking relaxing and there he was telling us jokes when a man come out from my father's yard and he called him "Hey" where are you going? And he said he came to buy a volt, and so he told him that its bad for him. We then saw him leave and he was laughing and we were still there. Then all of a sudden we saw another person walking towards us but he was covered, all his head, he was covered and when this person arrived in front of us he lifted up his head and his face was also covered. He saw it and he pushed me to his side and i fell thats when i heard the shots. I yelled at him to get up but he was already on the ground and so I ran to where he was and the shots continued. I hugged him and not a single shot touched me only him. No one else only him. They only wanted him, and there he was lying on the ground. The police came quickly and when he rolled over to look at me he only opened his eyes as if he wanted to say something but i don't know what he wanted to say. My little brother came and called him, Brother in law and he tried to speak again but he started vomiting blood and there we stayed. He couldn't anymore. He was shot more than 9 times."

Ruiz believes that the motive behind her husband's killing may be a case of mistaken identity. She says that Canela worked with her father, and hardly ever went out to socialize. She says they rarely left each other's side, and he never mentioned to her that he had received threats or was in danger.

Reporter "Did your husband have problems with anyone previously?"

Indy Ruiz, Common law of deceased "No."

Reporter "He never told you anything?"

Indy Ruiz, Common law of deceased "No he is a friendly man he talks to the whole world, and everyone in Patchkan, everywhere we go they greet him. he is friendly anywhere he goes in corozal, very friendly with everyone."

Reporter "We know Patchkan is a route into Mexico through Ramonal. Would you say that whatever is happening in country might have any relation to the gangs or drugs that side?"

Indy Ruiz, Common law of deceased "No he had nothing to do with those things he was always at home with us here with me, lying down. We were always together, wherever he goes I go, ever since we knew each other we have always been together, i never say anything, any bad movements nothing. All the time he was okay and he would say nothing good comes from those things. That's how we were, wherever he was I was there too. Wherever he went i would go."

]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70106 Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "The preliminary information is that it's not leading in that direction but as you rightly mentioned, with the very tense situation that is taking place in Chetumal at the moment, we cannot rule that as a motive, as a possible connection, so the police is looking at that angle as well but so far, that doesn't seem to be the lead."

Courtney Menzies: "Do you know whether it was drug related in general?"

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "Again, I cannot say at this very point, I'm sure as the day progresses, we'll get more information." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70107 Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition "And so with the execution last night, I am on the ground. I know what is happening. That was a direct result. That was an execution from the narco infiltration that has taken over Corozal from last year, probably before that, but the same way the Prime Minister said that high officials in the UDP were responsible for landing planes. I can tell you that high officials in the People's United Party are responsible for the narco infiltration in the north, Corozal specifically. So the country of Belize needs to be on high alert. We are a narco state This is the reality of our country. The executions will continue the narco dominance will continue the narco element wants to make certainly the north of Belize equivalent to what is happening in Quintana Roo in Chetumal." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70108 Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition "Chesty Besty as Sun Up calls him, never says, you know what, we have a problem. There is an emergency. We need all hands on deck. You know, we need to call an emergency meeting. The National Security Council, PM, minister, let us all get together, stakeholders, NGO, unions, churches, opposition, let us come together because this is an emergency."

"And we have been seeing the emergency with the narco infiltration since last year, we saw all the murders in Corozal, but no Chesty Besty want tell you about, oh, he is running in Mesop and yeah, what he will do when he is retired from the commissioner's office, and taking all of us for Kunu Munu and poppyshow. When he is charged with the very grave, very serious, very serious responsibility of our citizen security. And we see that that is under threat." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70109 Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I wasn't aware of that, I always joke about it but did I miss something yesterday, did he announced his candidacy?"

Courtney Menzies: "On Sunup he said he's seriously considering getting into politics but do you feel that this undermines people's confidence in his job if he's now thinking about moving on?"

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I don't believe so, until the point of announcing your candidacy officially, I think that he often toys with the idea and he jokes around with the media, and so we have to wait until he makes a decision but he has not in my opinion shown any party affiliation, political affiliation, to any one party but you know as well as I do, I think the Commissioner would make an excellent representative, he has a great track record as Commissioner of Police so it's quite possible that he would offer himself." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70110 Stake Bank has now filed suit against its former owner to recover a very long list of items which the receiver says the company owns but does not have possession of.

The list includes top tier luxury items such as a Beech King Airplane valued at 1.5 million dollars as well as another aircraft! The receiver tells the court these are registered in the company's name, but he can't locate them. The list - we are told - includes many items which the receiver deems non-project related.

But one item they are seeking return of - which is VERY project related is the 23 acres of reclaimed land surrounding the original 16 acres which the Bank holds the title for.

Feinstein reclaimed the surrounding 23 acres - but the title for those lands are in his name, not the company's. Well, Stake Bank has filed suit for the return of that most valuable asset as well.

Notably, a forensic audit of the company is currently underway, involving both local and international accountants. ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70111 The most recent is for the chopping murder of Pedro Antonio Hernandez in Maya Mopan, Belmopan.

Police have detained the machete wielding assailant, a Guatemalan laborer. He is 30 year old Victor Castellanos. He has been charged for the murder of Pedro Hernandez and Aggravated Assault upon Amelia Hernandez. According to neighbors, CASTELLANOS was wielding two machetes. ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70112 Police today charged 22 year oldTravis Herbert of #16 Iguana Street, for the crime of Murder.

Lewis had gone into the Iguana Street area to cash checks for his fellow gang affiliates in the LIU program. ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70113 He is accused of killing Jordan Waight on the 23rd of November 2023 on Barbara Harris Street in Belize City. ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70114 Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I think at the end of the day, the SOE was fairly successful in terms of the bust that we made of the large quantity of drugs, of the high powered firearms and ammunition that was located on an island. I believe that the police from the GI3 unit have been able to do their investigations, perhaps a little more time would have been appreciated by then in order to get investigations to levy gang membership and gang leadership charges against certain individuals but that 30 day period also provided a lot of time for the police to do investigations in the certain murders that took place in February, March, and April of this year and so I think it was sufficient time, the police could certainly do with additional time but they continue with their work in terms of investigations as we speak." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70115 And there was another last night...A fatal RTA in Orange walk last night on the San Antonio Road brings the count for the past 7 days to a total of 7 fatal accidents.

28 year old Alejo Castillo, a resident of Yo Creek is the latest victim. At 2:30 this morning, Castillo was driving home when he lost control of his gray Suzuki cycle causing him to flip and land on the side of the road. He was found by his cousin Alejandro Castillo 10 minutes after. Castillo was rushed to the Northern Regional hospital where he succumbed to his injuries a few hours later. ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70116 Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I think at some point we have to take personal responsibility, I'm sure the Ministry of Transport, the highway patrols, all of them are taking serious note of what is happening, especially when it comes to motorcycles, we've seen an increase number of cases of fatalities and so that is definitely on the Ministry of Transport's radar, it's definitely on the police's radar, but at the end of the day, we can ticket only so much, at the end of the day, you're the one behind the cycle, you're the one driving at high speeds, you have to take better care." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70117 Load shedding continued today with the entire downtown area of Belize City - including this studio - getting a three hour outage while maintenance works were done.There was also an outage in Cayo at the same time.

The stability of the power supply remains precarious tonight - as Mexico's CFE is not available until tomorrow and BEL does not have enough in-country capacity to keep the country electrified.

Today, the leader of the opposition said it's the government's fault:

Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition "And it is no coincidence that we are here in blackout. It is appalling and completely deplorable that we have reached this position. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend, fathom, appreciate. Why an administration that claims to be so ahead of the curve, whose scambelize manifesto actually talked about energy security, who borrowed 155 million dollars from the Saudis last year, would not be ahead of this?"

"So for us to be here now with John Mencias, the CEO of BEL, saying, well, you know, for 10 years we knew that we had this problem, but no one did anything is absolutely deplorable. It is devastating to the health sector, to the tourism sector, to the economy, which is driven by our tourism, and someone needs to be held accountable."

"Again, I appreciate Mr. Mencias' honesty, but someone needs to be fired. Someone needs to be held accountable. What has Michel Chebat been doing since he took on the portfolio at PUC?" ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70118 Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I guess you could say we are victims of our own success because our tourism product is doing exceptionally well at this time and I think that our energy usage, it was predicted that in 2028, we would be reaching around the levels we are now and so that certainly in greater consumption and as a result, I'm sure that BEL will be taking requisite action to ensure that our Belizean population has energy."

Courtney Menzies: "But it's too little too late, we're dealing with this now, we're dealing with the load shedding, and this was born ten years ago when BEL should have implemented some sort of mechanism so that we could start producing our own energy."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "Yeah we do produce our own energy, there are alternative sources of energy as you know in the country, it's just that perhaps they did not predict that Mexico would be having an issue with their load as well and therefore could not supply us with the additional energy that we needed."

Courtney Menzies: "Shouldn't we be able to produce our own energy to [supply] the entire country?"

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "That has been a work in progress and you can be assured that that is the objective of the government at this time." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70119 Musa said it would require collaboration to combat it.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "When you look at the operations of the, I could say this I presume, the cartel operations in Quintana Roo, there are several different layers to that of course there's the human trafficking, human smuggling layer, there's the importation of cannabis and there's activities in the Free Zone so all of these various trades, cross border trades, would result in some sort of collaboration with local networks and that would be our responsibility to ensure that we are targeting these individuals locally, who are or may be networked along with the cartels." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70120 Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "In terms of scaling back the penalties, I quite like the fact that we are putting in place laws that benefit our people, you should not look at it as you're getting a ticket or you're getting fined, you are saving you life, the police department, the transport department are putting laws in place and enforcing laws that will help you to save your life and I think that's how we have to look at it."

Courtney Menzies: "But I think what Vejea is trying to say is that officers are arresting persons when could just simply issue a ticket."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "Again, I would have to get particulars of that instance so that I can investigate it."

Reporter: "The deputy chief transport officer has explained that there are three possibilities, you can get a ticket, you can get summoned to court or you can actually be arrested and charged. The question is why don't authorities altogether consider we'll just ticket you, he did say if that ticket expires, you're going to court and have to pay $500 because the $50 fee will expire, so why not just standardize it because then how will be fair Courtney gets $50 and I get $500."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I agree with you and again it will have to be a close examination by the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Home Affairs to see the instances that you're speaking of because as far as I'm aware, you are ticketed, and thereafter if you do not appear by the date that is contained in that ticket then in fact it's an automatic fine so that is the policy and that is a procedure as I understand it so if there are other instances or maybe an individual committed some other in fracture, that's a different story." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70121 Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "As you may recall we had an incident on the swing bridge I believe about a year ago. Since then, we have collaborated with the Ministry of Health, them taking the lead, along with the Ministry of Human Development and training such as these, as we speak right now, Christa Courtenay is training our police officers in terms of crisis intervention, so there is a CIT crisis intervention team that will be formed by the police department in how to treat cases like that and so moving forward we can see how steps are being made, not just in terms of a multi-department, multi-ministerial approach, along with the Ministry of Health, they have the database of the individuals and they are ensuring they are tracking them and ensuring that they are receiving their requisite medication if need be and then in terms of crisis intervention, trainings such as these are extremely important for the police officers." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70122 And for that the PUP needs to pick one candidate. A number of persons have so far shown interest - most prominently Dr Osmond Martinez, the CEO in the Ministry of Economic Development, and Melhem Espat, who is Mike Espat's son. We asked Musa who he's supporting.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I think both candidates bring a huge value to the table in terms of their candidacy and it's pretty much going to secure the People's United Party another victory at the polls in Toledo East, I think the family at this time and all the mourners are just grieving the passing of our beloved Iron Mike as I like to call him and so I haven't put much thought to it but I'm certain that the best candidate will be chosen at the end of the day to represent Toledo East."

Reporter: "What were your thoughts when you heard Mr Luke Espat mention legacy and he referred to your brother taking over for your father in Fort George."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I think in terms of legacies in the country, there are certain families that have by their very nature gotten into politics and so it's no just in Fort George, like I think he mentioned other divisions as well and so it's very obvious that you have certain families that are inclined to offer themselves in political office." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70123 Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition "Desho is a student protege of Eden Martinez School who was successful against Iron Mike in 2008 and he was very instrumental in bringing Eden in and so I am very confident in his ability to deliver Toledo East for the United Democratic Party."

"He has paid his dues, he has been there since the victory of Eden Martinez who took out Iron Mike and I am confident that whoever the People's United Party candidate is and I know they have their own division and their own civil war happening right now in Toledo East, I'm confident that he will be able to deliver Toledo East for the United Democratic Party." ]]> Fri, 03 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=70124 In Belize, journalists generally operate without fear, but do they operate with favor? While we rank 54 out of 180 on the security index created by Reporters Without Borders - with 180 being the lowest - the 2022 US Human Rights Practices report states that media outlets practice self-censorship to appease politicians and powerful businesspersons.

The media asked one politician, Minister Kareem Musa, what he thought about this report.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I think we have enjoyed an immense level of freedom of the press in Belize. I would, of course, want to see us even higher on that list. But at the end of the day, our accessibility as ministers, your ability to spin stories in whichever way you wish without being censored, without being censored at all, speaks volumes about our country's respect for the press."

"And like I said, hopefully we can only go higher on that list."

Reporter "In saying that, certain media houses practice self censorship to appease certain politicians."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "Well then You should ask certain members of the media, not me. I don't know whether your media practices that. You'd have to ask the various media houses and their directors if they do."

Reporter "Is it something that you maybe had noticed when you were in...?"

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "Absolutely not. I find that every single media house in this country is critical of whichever government is in office."

"And so I think there is no party affiliation. I think maybe in the 90s you could have said certain media houses like Channel 7 were aligned with the UDP. But at the end of the day, I found them to be very critical of the Barrow Administration towards the end."

"But at the end of the day, I find everybody to give a very balanced. I might not agree with certain spins, Courtney, but that is that is the lay of the land."

Reporter "Sir, you think that your government, though, makes themselves accessible to the media and does not try to undermine our jobs?"

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs "I believe so. I would say so. I think I'm fairly accessible as a minister. I think I see myself too much on your newscast. And if you could decrease that, I'd appreciate that."

News Director Says GOB Holds Press In Contempt

But while Minister Musa says that PUP politicians are accessible, our News Director here at Channel 7 disagrees. Jules Vasquez explained that while here in Belize, journalists do enjoy freedom of the press, government officials have consistently avoided, undermined, and blocked them.

Shyne Says Mainland China Should Help Boost Belize's Military

And - just like his predecessors when they were in opposition - Shyne Barrow knows all about press conferences. He has very regular press briefings to sound off on a whole bunch of national issues as you have seen tonight.

Today he added one from far left field. While speaking about the Sarstoon situation with Guatemala - he floated the idea of Mainland chine boosting Belize's military:

Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition "When it comes to the Sarstoon, we don't expect that our generals and military would commit suicide. And by no means, I won't be irresponsible, like the People's United Party was in opposition. When the United Democratic Party was being responsible and protesting through diplomatic channels and trying to handle this situation the most appropriate way, which would be through diplomacy. Because obviously, until we make a shift in policy, which is something I think we need to consider, instead of Taiwan giving the People's United Party money to buy elections and to do different things to interfere in our democracy, maybe we should ask the Taiwanese or possibly the Chinese, the People's Republic of China, if they were to be a switch."

"Maybe we should ask for military investments. Maybe we need to strengthen our military, because while I do agree that we are a peaceful nation, we are a nation that wants to live in harmony with our neighbors, life is real."

"We need to protect ourselves. We need to defend our territorial integrity, whether from the elements such as the narcos or the Guatemalans and their unfounded claims and their bullish behavior."

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