And while the families got full respect and honours from officialdom today, Choco's mother has already told the media she learned of her son's death on Facebook. But, what about his wife, Jasmine Choco? She lived in Ladyville to be with her husband and they shared a residence at Price Barracks. She teaches nearby in Ladyville, but reports from family members say she too learned of her husband's demise ion facebook.
Today, the Minister of National Security commented on these critical communication lapses:
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Minister of National Security
"As a parent, as a spouse, you can never be informed quickly enough and we did not want to jump the gun. The BDF has a structure, the military has a structure and they wanted to be sure that these persons were deceased, that they could properly be identified and only then they would give an official indication to the family members. All military personnel give an indication to the BDF as to who they want to be contacted. I understand the families' pain, I understand their frustration, but at the same time we beg of them to trust us that we will have a full-fledged report as to what happened."
Hon. Oscar Requena, Area Rep., Toledo West
"It is unfortunate that it has happened this way and certainly looking into the future I hope that the military command can ensure that these types of challenges do not occur."
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"Nothing that we do could bring back these 4 brothers and so we understand that families have to vent, we understand that they have to be frustrated, but we want to assure them that in no way whatever we do whether there was a delay, anything like that we have never steered away from giving these soldiers our maximum respect and given them our loyalty just like how they gave their loyalty to Belize."
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