12 people died near Roatan Honduras yesterday evening when a small commercial plane crashed. The Lanhsa Airlines flight veered into the sea shortly after takeoff. It was headed to La Ceiba - the home of its most famous passenger Aurelio Martinez.
Of the 17 passengers and crew, he is one of the 12 who perished.
Martinez was an icon of Garifuna music, very well known in Belize and across what he called the Garifuna nation.
Jules Vasquez looked at his legacy here in Belize:
This was Aurelio Maritnez in Roatan yesterday doing an impromptu jankunu performance and giving fans a shoutout, a short time before the airplane he was traveling in went down killing him and 11 others, including his female traveling companion. The videos from the Honduran police show the frantic rescue efforts.
For his fans, friends and former bandmates and fellow musicians in Belize - the news hit like a ton of bricks:
Denmark Flores, Leader Drummer - Garifuna Collective
"I mean the entire world, not just the country of Belize, the entire Garifuna nation world, we have been saddened by the loss of Aurelio Martinez yesterday. This one hit home. You don't have to be blood to be family. The fact that we, the members of Garifuna Collective, along with the Belize community have been around this man for so many years. That's family."
Family and countryman. Aurelio Martinez may have been Honduran but he always claimed to be a Belizean - and felt most a home here - this was when he spoke to us through a VIP translator in 2004:
Aurelio Martinez
"He says that this year, things are progressing on the basis of things that were started last year."
"But the reason he's happy to be here is because he actually feels as though he were Belizean himself."
Aurelio Martinez, Landini Album
"I'm come back home, just right now. I feel like a Belizean. I'm Belizean. Because Andy Palacio gave me a key. (laughs)
Aurelio Martinez
"Andy Palacio gave me a key. So I take the key because I have to do good work with this key."
And what work he did. he may jealously claim him. Aurelio Martinez was for the world. He performed on the biggest global stages in a career dazzled by brilliance.
Denmark Flores, Leader Drummer - Garifuna Collective
"I travelled around the world with him, South America, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and Canada. We've been on so many world stage with this guy, enough to be a part of what he shows, what he teaches."
As a song and dance man, he was unmatched in this region - but he also knew that he was the product of generations of such men - one of them who introduced him at his debut at the Bliss Centre:
Andy Palacio
"Live and direct from Plapaya by way of La Ceiba, Honduras, live on stage Aurelio Martinez Swazo."
Aurelio Martinez, Tiny Desk Concert
"Nobody knows about this music. I start do this work with Andy Palacio, my good friend and Paul Nabor, passed away too. I'm the most young man in the this project, but now I'm in front, because my two friends has passed away."
And now - so tragically - Aurelio Martinez has also passed - but his legacy endures as does the memory of his electrifying stages in Belize.
I first encountered him in 1998 at a rehearsal at the Government House where - almost an unknown - he sat among the legends - and when we saw him in Dangriga in November, 2024 - he was the legend:
Today, Martinez's team put out a release saying, quote,
"Aurelio MartÃnez was more than an artist-he was a guardian of Garifuna heritage, a bridge between generations, and a symbol of cultural resilience. His unmistakable voice and mastery of the guitar brought Garifuna music to the world's most prestigious stages,...In 2005, he made history as the first Afro-Honduran elected to the National Congress...his legacy will live on through his songs, in the memories of those who knew him, and in every young Garifuna inspired by his example.
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