Important Note: This Internet version of 7 News is a verbatum
transcript of our evening television news script. Many interviews on our newscast
are conducted in Creole. In the interest of clarity for our foreign readers,
we attempt to paraphrase the Creole quotes in English
September has seen four young lives lost to motorcycle accidents. The most recent of those incidents occurred on Friday night and took the life of 16-year-old Miguel Maldonado. The teenager was headed out of Unitedville to visit a friend when he was hit by a vehicle.
He follows a tragic and terrifying trend of teenagers who have gotten into fatal accidents while riding motorcycles. In his case, he hadn't even been riding that long.
Courtney Menzies went west to speak with his family. Here is that story.
16-year-old Miguel Maldonado is the fourth teenager to die in less than two weeks as a result of a motorcycle accident. In this case, according to police, it was a vehicle that took his life:
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED "On Friday the 20th day of September 2024, there was a fatal road traffic accident at Unitedville. Police visited the area where they saw a Toyota Corolla car and a motorcycle extensively damaged. Information is that the driver of the motorcycle is one Miguel Maldonado, 16 years. He was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The driver of the Toyota Corolla car was Donovan Tzib, a urine sample was taken, NIP served and an investigation is being carried out at this time."
Reporter "What's the circumstances surrounding the...?"
ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED "The pickup hit the motorcycle causing Miguel Maldonado to fall and received injuries."
His brother explained that he was headed to his friend's house - and that he was supposed to go with him.
Anderson Gabriel, Brother of Deceased "In the night he was going to our friend's on a motorcycle, he is in Cayo, and I was going to go with him but I stayed home and he said he's going to the gas station to get gas. So I was at home and they called me and told me that he crashed into a car."
And while Maldonado wasn't old enough to have a driver's license, he was already working, and recently got the motorcycle.
Anderson Gabriel, Brother of Deceased "He was working in Teakettle. The name of his work is Soluna Farm."
Courtney Menzies: "Do you guys use motorcycles a lot?"
Anderson Gabriel, Brother of Deceased "Not really."
Courtney Menzies: "Has he been riding for a long time though?"
Anderson Gabriel, Brother of Deceased "No, I think 5 months."
And Maldonado is missed by the village, especially since, according to his brother, he made many friends.
Anderson Gabriel, Brother of Deceased "We go to work, come back, and sometimes we go to play football in the field, sometimes I would go with him on the motorcycle and go by our friends to visit them."
"He was a person who works good and he had a lot of friends."
The first accident occurred on September 8th, taking the life of 19 year old Tamisha Jeal. A few days later, 18 year old Alvin Guardado was killed, and then a little over a week ago, 19 year old Amand Arana lost his life in another accident.
29-year-old Aaron Flowers was vindicated in court earlier this month after the cop who beat him in a cell, Inspector Christopher Martinez pleaded guilty to wounding and was sentenced to five months in jail. But in a strange turn of events, Flowers is now in court for the very same crime.
He is accused of assaulting a Salvadoran food vendor on Faber's Road. She claims he began harassing her customers on Sunday, so she asked him to leave. He then allegedly threatened her and threw condiment bottles at her, causing injuries to her side and face.
Flowers appeared unrepresented in court and was read two charges of aggravated assault and wounding. He pleaded not guilty and told the court that he was actually the one who was being assaulted. He explained his side of the story to court reporter Anita Nembhard.
Aaron Flowers, Charged With Wounding "You know what happened, the lady chased me with a knife and when I ran to the police for rescue, what happened? The police spin the whole case on me, right now I'm going to report the police to prosecution branch. That's all I have to say. You ever witness somebody running to the police for help and when someone run to the police for help, the police don't help them, the police turned around and helped the accused, that's what caught me."
Flowers then told the court that he was injured during the incident but did not get to seek medical attention because the officer at the station refused to take his report.
Flowers was offered bail of $1,500 plus one surety of the same amount. He will be back in court on November 22nd.
She's accused of murdering a 17 year old Jasmine Petillo by stabbing her 98 times - and tonight 28 year old Shereema Neal, a mother of 6 is awaiting the verdict of trial judge, Justice Candace Nanton.
It didn't get much media attention at the time but Neal's trial concluded on September 16th with the verdict to be given at a date to be announced.
The murder occurred at Mahogany Heights in June of 2016 and DNA evidence gathered at the time was central to the prosecution's case.
Here's when the officer commanding for that area told us 8 years ago about that evidence:
posted (July 4, 2016)
ACP Edward Broaster - OC, Eastern Division Rural "We have identified the house in which we believe the young lady was killed. We have also managed to extract blood samples from the house which will be sent to the lab for DNA testing and that will give us the way forward in terms of charges and what have you in respect to that murder case. We have also found bloody clothing in another location which was discarded by another suspect and we are looking for an additional suspect where we will be doing DNA swab as well and sent to the lab for testing."
Again, that interview was from 2016.
And in the trial Senior Crown Counsel Portia Ferguson relied heavily on DNA evidence to get a conviction. What are known as Luminol tests were done in the kitchen and two other parts of Neal's house.
These were matched against samples taken of blood of the deceased. All eh samples were sent abroad for analysis and when the results came back in 2021, Neal was arrested and charged with murder because there was a match of both samples.
After the Crown closed its case, Neal's attorney , Lyndon Jones made a no case submission but it was rejected by Justice Nanton.
When she was informed of the three options she had, Neal chose to remain silent
Petillo's body was found about 400 yards from Neal's house. The motive for the murder was allegedly revenge because the ki9ller believed Petillo had lured a man to his death in 2015.
Last night we told you about Jeron McKay, the 46 year old Belizean American who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after he pushed the Commissioner of Police during the Orange Walk Carnival.
He pleaded guilty and the Chief Magistrate fined him 1,500 dollars because it was his first offense.
Well, the Commissioner of Police isn't happy about that. This morning the the LOVE Morning Show he gave his account of what happened - and stressed the intention of Mckay who grabbed him by the shirt:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "Jarod Mackay seems to be a big bad man. He is an Iraqi vet, and I think he wanted to show off himself. But I just maintained my cool."
"He was consuming alcohol from a Belikin bottle. I approached him very nicely and I said to him - you cannot one consuming alcohol in a bottle, and I reached to take the bottle away from him and when I did that, he pushed me away. When he pushed me away, I again said to him that he needed to give me the bottle and this time he grabbed me in my shirt. And I had a nice piece of Rosewood in my hand, a baton, it weighs about 5 pounds, I held myself back, not to use it on him."
"The officer I was with came in between, held unto him and while the officer was holding unto him, he continued to hold on to my shirt, and say, "I want him". I don't know what he wanted me for. But he said he wanted me. I just continued to keep my cool until he was able to let go of my shirt."
"And ahm other officers came and we were able to handcuff him and put him in the vehicle and took him away to the police station."
From there he was brought down to the city for arraignment and trial with his attorney Leeroy Banner.
In the proceedings, the Chief Magistrate did consider sending him to jail, but he said he didn't know it was the commissioner. That was one of the other reasons the Chief granted him a non custodial sentence.
The commissioner took issue with that today:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "But the thing is that he said to the court that he did not know I was the commissioner. It does not matter whether I am the Commissioner or not. I was in my police uniform. So he knew I was a police. That was what was important."
"And if he had done to any police in the states what he did to me, he would not be alive today."
"And he knows that."
That's a dire reading of US law enforcement but it's far from the harshest thing the commissioner had to say. He criticized the decision of the Chief Magistrate to fine and not confine McKay - and once again brought up the case of his close cousin, Inspector Chris Martinez who that same Chief Magistrate sent to prison:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "But I am extremely dissatisfied with the outcome because here we have a situation where Inspector Martinez was charged for beating a person who was accused of shooting his house where his wife and children were and Martinez got five months."
"Now here you have a person who assaulted the Commissioner of Police while doing his job and he just got a slap on the wrist and said pay one thousand five and you go home. You're saying to the public, the criminals per se, you beat the police, we will charge you a little money, send you home, but if the police touch you, we will send the police to jail. It's like a double standard we can we can have that."
Host "Were these different magistrates?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "The same magistrate. The same magistrate who tried Martinez and who dealt with this matter, so you can't say..... it is the same magistrate dealt with both cases."
We stress that Aaron Flowers was never formally accused or charged for shooting at Christopher Martinez's house. He was detained but police had no evidence to charge him.
Two weeks ago, we took you to More Tomorrow Government School where Dominina Pop was the principal and teacher of 40 students. Since then, they've gotten another teacher, but with three classrooms, they're still short of one. So while progress has been made, and the school can remain open, the struggle to find teachers who are willing to travel down More Tomorrow's long, pothole-riddled dirt road is no easy feat. We went back there today to get an update. Courtney Menzies has this story.
The sound of this bell signaled the end of the lunch break for the More Tomorrow students. A few weeks ago, they were on the verge of losing their school since there were no teachers. The principal, Dominina Pop, had to manage 8 grades in 3 classrooms by herself. But today she said that she finally has help:
Dominina Pop, Principal, More Tomorrow Government School "Since your last visit, we have had many changes and great changes. I am very glad that the Ministry had sent another teacher, Ms Ruby Barrera. She's here and she's teaching the upper division so with the upper division out of my hands, I'm more comfortable and I can take control of my lower division and my middle division."
But the school's not out of the woods yet - Pop must still move between two classrooms. What she needs now is a teacher for the younger students - and parents have been keeping their kids at home or transferring them without one.
And just yesterday, a teacher that was supposed to start decided not to take on the task of traveling into the village. But Pop hasn't given up hope.
Dominina Pop, Principal, More Tomorrow Government School "I'd say about 80%, I still have 20% missing but I was assured by my local manager that they're trying their best to locate a teacher and send him or her back to More Tomorrow."
Courtney Menzies: "You're still have troubles because while teachers come and survey the school, they don't want to stay."
Dominina Pop
"I know, I'm disappointed but through those disappointments I know one will come and make me happy."
And that may be easier now that the road is a bit better, but Pop says the government can still do more to make the environment more welcoming for teachers.
Dominina Pop, Principal, More Tomorrow Government School "By the grace of God I hope I reach that retirement age and I would like to make a few recommendations. I want to sell this post in More Tomorrow so one thing I would like is maybe the Ministry could have housing where the teachers can come and stay and then also let the teachers be aware of the benefits you get here, like your hardship allowance, your day off at the end of the month, you get a whole day off. And so it's very nice because it's small amount of children in each class and you can see the product that you'll do everyday, you can see the learning that's happening and you feel good about yourself."
"I must say thanks to the Ministry of Works, they upgraded the road so the condition of the road is much better but I believe they can still do more because work never stops and the more you put into it, the better results you get."
We note that, citing frustration, a few parents have opted to move their children to the school in nearby St Matthews Village.
The United Nations General Assembly commenced today and while attention on the world stage may have been dominated by the US President or his Iranian or Ukranian counterparts, we were watching Guatemala.
In his first UN address, President Bernardo Arevalo sent positive signals about the Belize Guatemala dispute with a firm commitment to the ICJ process. Here are his words through the official translator:
Bernardo Arevalo, President, Guatemala "I would like to reaffirm the commitment of Guatemala to permanently and in a lasting manner resolve before the International Court of Justice the insular and maritime and territorial dispute with the brotherly country, a neighbourly country of Belize."
"By opting for dialogue and the international legal mechanisms we have demonstrated that peaceful means and respect for multilateral institutions are the most effective way to resolve disputes between countries."
"We are confident that this process will make it possible to bring about a just and lasting solution that respects the rights and dignity of both countries. This act is an act of faith, of our faith, in international law and our commitment to lasting peace not only for Guatemala and Belize but also as an example for the region and for the world."
Belize's Prime Minister addressed the UN's Summit of the Future yesterday. And the Foreign Minister will address the General Debate on Saturday.
But before that, the PM and Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca have a full week of meetings in New York. Here he is with the Cabinet Secretary meeting with the World Wildlife Fund Chief Executive Officer Carter Roberts. A post says he discussed, quote, "continued efforts to raise funds for the protection of our marine and coastal resources."
The Prime Minister returns to the country on Friday.
The First Inter American sign language linguistics conference took place this morning in Belize City at the UWI Campus. The attendees consisted of not only persons from the deaf community but also public servants and those willing to learn more about sign language. The event is being coordinated by Svetlana Romero, and her mother spoke with us on her behalf.
Mother of Svetlana Romero, Coordinator, International Congress for Sign language "What we are doing today is sharing with our countries who are within the region."
"Their experience as well as how far they have reached. Our guests are all deaf and so they have come to Belize to share their knowledge and experience with us."
"Well basically the conference is to promote awareness in Belize. We need to be able to have everyone know that we have a deaf community and they may not be as active but they need to hear."
"The officers that are here they also took part in the sign language classes that they had before at least so they can practice what they have learned and some of our guest speakers will be talking about their role as a community. For example the police they protect the community and so if they do not know sign language how will they be able to communicate so they are here also to learn more."
Belize's number one basketball prospect - and Dangriga's very own Douglas Langford has committed to play at Harvard University. The university is giving him what's called a full ride scholarship - which means it covers all expenses.
Now, getting a scholarship like that from a private university is already good news - but Harvard also happens to be one of the top five universities in the entire United States - and one of the finest educational institutions in the English speaking world.
And for the Langford family, that Harvard degree was always central to their decision making process because they say that even this top prospect needs a plan b. We spoke to the family in a Zoom conference call today -w with Douglas Junior at St Pius the tenth high school in Los Angeles, his mom at her job in Belize City, and his father in Dangriga.
They shared their excitement and their level headed approach to a very big adventure:
The scholarship is valued at about 350 thousand US dollars.
We note that Harvard has a 4% admission rate - meaning that most who apply are turned away. He was also offered scholarships to Yale, Penn and Princeton.
Douglas junior will be 18 in December and is listed at 6 - 7 or 6 - 8.
Artists from all walks of life, part of the Primary and Secondary Art Skills Training Project got a chance to showcase their work spanning back to almost a decade. The exhibition took place this morning at the Mexican Embassy and Institute in Belize City. I was there and got a chance to meet some of the artists and coordinators. Here's what I saw:
Beyond Imagination Art Extravaganza, carefully curated to display the artworks of over a decade's worth of paintings, drawings and sketches made by students under the instruction and guide of Fiona Hsu and her daughter Christine Huang - both very talented artists themselves. Huang says it is not only a proud moment for her but also the artists that have poured their souls out onto a canvas. It surely is art worth being seen.
Christine Huang, Art Instructor "So this exhibition is showcasing the work of our students for the past ten years that we have been working in Belize and these are the works that they continued to do every through the pandemic so I hope to show everybody their passion and also for the youth that came to visit the exhibition for them to have a platform to exchange maybe an interest or hobby the techniques different things."
"In the beginning we started with primary school students and then like you said they grew up and continued on to learn their art so we provided courses for high school and now the high school students have graduated so we have from primary schools all the way to adults to teachers and past students who wish to become art teachers that they come back to the studio and ask for trainings for the visual arts CXC teacher or different kinds."
Huang and her mother started this Art skills training program years ago, and have over 75 students enrolled up to today. Students have the option of taking classes online or in the studio, but this initiative would not have been possible without the help of international friends.
Christine Huang, Art Instructor "The program itself is sponsored by the foreign ministry of Taiwan through the Embassy of Taiwan in Belize but because of our work the Mexican institute they always have art competitions and that's how we started to collaborate together to train our students to do the art competitions in Mexico and eventually we become friends and this place is just the best place to host our exhibitions for many years yes."
And for students like 14 year old Isabella Waldman, it's a chance for her to display up to 5 of her pieces, mostly water color paintings and pencil drawings.
Isabella Waldman, Art student "So I've actually been attending Ms Fiona's Art program for about three years now, but it's a real experience being there having a lot of other people who are there to try and get better also because they are passionate about art. And the process of creating it is genuinely a journey I'd say. You are there and you come to her like want to know more, so passionate about this thing but you don't know where to start. But planning a piece and actually starting it is absolutely nerve-racking because you don't know if you were going to mess it up you don't know if you need to start over you don't know if you are doing it correctly, but I think that that is the thing about art, you don't know what the end result is going to be about the journey and process of creating it I think it is one of the most rewarding things actually being proud of the end result is an experience for sure."
Then there are former students like St John Vianney graduate Jayra Young who enrolled in the program when it was in its early stages. It's a walk down memory lane for her, seeing all the art she made over the years as a student.
Jayra Young, Art Student "So I have about 4 artworks here on display two of them were a part of my SBA, one of them was one that I did from a long time ago and then one was a peace poster that I won first place on a couple years ago in STD 6."
"So the ones for the SBA, those are what I did in third to fourth form that I sent for my CXC. Those ones my theme was life and death and so I did two that were basically, one was an anorexic woman and the other was a woman trapped inside an hourglass and it was just basically showing the fragility of life saying that at any time life can just go like that. The one behind the peace poster, the theme of it was peace so I just went and I thought about something, how peace should look in Belize and then the first one that was just a little crazy one I did when I was younger."
They may not have had the backing of their own national union, but tonight, the UDP says it supports Stann Creek teachers who protested in Dangriga on Independence Day. A release says, quote, "Rather than adjusting teacher's salary to keep pace with rising cost of living, the government has withheld increments for 2021 and 2022 forcing teachers to face a 2024 financial crisis with a 2020 wage." End quote.
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September has seen four young lives lost to motorcycle accidents. The most recent of those incidents occurred on Friday night and took the life of 16-year-old Miguel Maldonado. The teenager was headed out of Unitedville to visit a friend when he was hit by a vehicle.
"On Friday the 20th day of September 2024, there was a fatal road traffic accident at Unitedville. Police visited the area where they saw a Toyota Corolla car and a motorcycle extensively damaged. Information is that the driver of the motorcycle is one Miguel Maldonado, 16 years. He was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The driver of the Toyota Corolla car was Donovan Tzib, a urine sample was taken, NIP served and an investigation is being carried out at this time."
Anderson Gabriel, Brother of Deceased
Aaron Flowers, Charged With Wounding
She's accused of murdering a 17 year old Jasmine Petillo by stabbing her 98 times - and tonight 28 year old Shereema Neal, a mother of 6 is awaiting the verdict of trial judge, Justice Candace Nanton.
"We have identified the house in which we believe the young lady was killed. We have also managed to extract blood samples from the house which will be sent to the lab for DNA testing and that will give us the way forward in terms of charges and what have you in respect to that murder case. We have also found bloody clothing in another location which was discarded by another suspect and we are looking for an additional suspect where we will be doing DNA swab as well and sent to the lab for testing."
Last night we told you about Jeron McKay, the 46 year old Belizean American who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after he pushed the Commissioner of Police during the Orange Walk Carnival.
"The officer I was with came in between, held unto him and while the officer was holding unto him, he continued to hold on to my shirt, and say, "I want him". I don't know what he wanted me for. But he said he wanted me. I just continued to keep my cool until he was able to let go of my shirt."
Two weeks ago, we took you to More Tomorrow Government School where Dominina Pop was the principal and teacher of 40 students. Since then, they've gotten another teacher, but with three classrooms, they're still short of one. So while progress has been made, and the school can remain open, the struggle to find teachers who are willing to travel down More Tomorrow's long, pothole-riddled dirt road is no easy feat. We went back there today to get an update. Courtney Menzies has this story.
Dominina Pop, Principal, More Tomorrow Government School
"I would like to reaffirm the commitment of Guatemala to permanently and in a lasting manner resolve before the International Court of Justice the insular and maritime and territorial dispute with the brotherly country, a neighbourly country of Belize."
But before that, the PM and Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca have a full week of meetings in New York. Here he is with the Cabinet Secretary meeting with the World Wildlife Fund Chief Executive Officer Carter Roberts. A post says he discussed, quote, "continued efforts to raise funds for the protection of our marine and coastal resources."
The First Inter American sign language linguistics conference took place this morning in Belize City at the UWI Campus. The attendees consisted of not only persons from the deaf community but also public servants and those willing to learn more about sign language. The event is being coordinated by Svetlana Romero, and her mother spoke with us on her behalf.
"The officers that are here they also took part in the sign language classes that they had before at least so they can practice what they have learned and some of our guest speakers will be talking about their role as a community. For example the police they protect the community and so if they do not know sign language how will they be able to communicate so they are here also to learn more."
Artists from all walks of life, part of the Primary and Secondary Art Skills Training Project got a chance to showcase their work spanning back to almost a decade. The exhibition took place this morning at the Mexican Embassy and Institute in Belize City. I was there and got a chance to meet some of the artists and coordinators. Here's what I saw:
"In the beginning we started with primary school students and then like you said they grew up and continued on to learn their art so we provided courses for high school and now the high school students have graduated so we have from primary schools all the way to adults to teachers and past students who wish to become art teachers that they come back to the studio and ask for trainings for the visual arts CXC teacher or different kinds."
Isabella Waldman, Art student 
Jayra Young, Art Student
They may not have had the backing of their own national union, but tonight, the UDP says it supports Stann Creek teachers who protested in Dangriga on Independence Day. A release says, quote, "Rather than adjusting teacher's salary to keep pace with rising cost of living, the government has withheld increments for 2021 and 2022 forcing teachers to face a 2024 financial crisis with a 2020 wage." End quote.