And the final murder of the long weekend was in the Stann Creek District, specifically
Bladden Village, which is within the banana belt. It happened on Boxing Day
at 4:30 in the afternoon on farm 11 where two banana workers, 19 year old Augustine
Choc Pop and 23 year old Jaime Pineda Sandoval got into what we are told was
a drunken argument.
Sandoval struck Pop across the face with a pipe. Pop recovered and pulled a
machete and chopped Sandoval to his face, and after he fell to the ground continued
to chop him multiple times – so badly that he severed his foot at the
knee. Sandoval died on the spot, and Pop fled throwing his machete in the bushes.
Police later recovered that weapon and have charged Pop for murder. Sandoval
was Honduran and had no family in Belize.
According to our unofficial count, those three murders become the ninety-second,
ninety-third and ninety- fourth murders for 2008 – an over 20% increase
from the 77 in 2007 – and may also be a new record high.
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