Again this weekend, a taximan's job has proven to be one of the most dangerous occupations as yet another has been killed, this one in Benque Viejo.
Today Alfonso Noble traveled to Cayo and found more than just a murder as the victim, Edgar Catalan's death is causing more confusion for his family than for the police.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
51 year old Edgar Catalan's white Toyota Camry was found in this pasture alongside the Calla Creek road around 12:15 on Saturday morning. The engine was idling and inside police found Catalan behind the steering wheel. He had at least two gunshots to the body one to the left shoulder and another to the back of the head. His Guatemalan common law wife Lorena Juarez says that she last saw him on Friday afternoon.
Lorena Juarez, Victim's Common-law wife
[Translation] "Early on Friday morning he went out. He told me he would not come home for lunch. Then he came back at around 10 went to sleep and then had lunch and at around 2. He said he was going to work but he left and never came back. I thought he had gotten a job."
He had left his home in Melchor de Mencos to come here to his estranged wife's home in Calla Creek. But he never made it; at around 5:30 on Friday his wife's brother in law Francisco Hernandez saw his vehicle
Francisco Hernandez,
[Translation] "When we were coming around Clarissa we saw the car that was parked there. The car was some 50 feet into the Savannah. I saw that the windshield wiper was on."
Alfonso Noble,
"Did you see anyone in the car?"
Francisco Hernandez,
[Translation] "No we did not see anyone. When we come in that area we always see taxis parked in there. We did not think much of it because we always see cars there."
Pany Arceo, President Western Taxi Association
"We have a taxi that went there and he went around 6 o'clock because he was invited to a little siesta in Calla Creek and he saw the vehicle there but you know sometimes the taxis find a date and they park under tree so he didn't think anything was wrong. But when he came back at 8 o'clock he still saw the taxi there and he was concerned about it but then sometimes you don't want to go there."
Now the association's President Pany Arceo says they are concerned over the murder, because it's the first time that one of their 78 members has been killed in this fashion.
Pany Arceo,
"We are very deeply concerned about what has happened because due that we living here close to the border and everybody here mostly live out of taxi we wouldn't want the situation to get out of hand and so we are trying to cope and try to make sure that these things are a lesson to the rest of taxi drivers countrywide."
"For us here in Benque it is the first time that we have seen this kind of violence or killing against a taxi driver and we have always asked what was the reason and we have not been giving a conclusion so we are going to have a meeting Wednesday with all the taxi drivers, all the unions here in Benque. At this meeting we are going to see how we can ensure that we don't let this go down like that."
But while there are those concerns preparations are being made to bury Catalan. Problem is that he's being claimed both here in Belize and in his home country of Guatemala. In fact a coffin was dispatched from Melchor but the driver of this taxi and the accompanying common law's sister were detained. Now the casket loaded inside the taxi and the occupants are detained in Benque as the investigation take its course. With that Catalan's common law wife is not at all pleased wanting only to take her husband back home.
Aurora Juarez,
[Translation] "I don't know if it's the wife or the association who is fighting him. They say it is the association because his wife did not want him. She said she did not want him alive or dead now those of the association says they will hold a wake for him here. He is not even Belizean he is Guatemalan."
Alfonso Noble,
"Do you want to take him back?"
Aurora Juarez,
[Translation] "Well yes, that was his wish to be buried in Guatemala, he wanted to be with his young children; not here in Belize, he is not Belizean."
Pany Arceo,
"We at the association have nothing to do with this but we have monies from each member and we have always said that the money would be to help one another when we need it. He was living here but his common-law wife is in Melchor and so there is a little disagreement between the two families. So the reason why I am having the wake here at my house is that I told them that both families can come and they trust me and nothing is going to happen because I don't think it is the time to fight for somebody that has already left us from this world."
And Arceo's view may seem on target as the larger issue of another taximan being killed would seem like a more pressing matter.
Catalan had 6 children with his wife and 2 with his Guatemalan common law wife who is also with child.