The past week was historic in Cayo. Hundreds gathered in the town center to see alleged killer Bert Vasquez. Never before has a community come out so forcefully for one of its own.
It's an unprecedented social phenomenon that deserves closer examination - so tonight we revisit the events of Wednesday and Thursday in the Cayo district when Bert Vasquez faced a veritable lynch mob waiting on him.
Jules Vasquez reporting
The angry mob, hundreds of them - chanting for justice in front of the police station the crowd swelling over from Columbus Park - never before in Belize's modern history has there been such a gathering.
Chris Lowe, Jasmine's Dad
"This is the straw that broke the camel's back, this showing. It's a shame it had to be my daughter."
They blocked downtown San Ignacio and they didn't want lady justice, they wanted the hangman's noose - fastened tight around his neck and hung high.
Protester #1
"This is a symbol of justice. We won't tolerate any more crime, zero tolerance for crime. We need our jewel back and if we have to take justice in our hands that is what we will do."
Glen Velasquez, Taxi Driver
"We are angry; we need that man out here. We want the police deliver that man to us so we can make justice, so he can see how that little girl die - just like that we want him to die."
Protester #2
"I don't want them to give him 100 years in jail. I want them to kill him."
Protester #1
"I want to kill him, to hang up, that's the reason why I have my hangman's noose."
There were speeches - all kinds of self-made posters, even life sized posters and patience - the crowd - of hundreds, regular folks lined up in the sweltering heat for hours, who left work, parked their cars on the road, her scout sisters, genuinely, viscerally outraged at the man who allegedly killed one of their own waited hours to see the accused.
Protester #1
"You know what my daughter told me today 'Mommy please don't go to work and go out there and demonstrate for peace, I am scared mommy.'"
Protester #3
"I want justice, I don't want to hear any more children or little girls being killed or they are being raped. So many things happening, I don't want my kids to go through that."
No one set this up, or paid them to be there, it was a spontaneous groundswell of community anger - at a lot of things probably - for which Bert Vasquez may have become the lightning rod.
And the only thing that would allay them is the announcement that more was on the way
Kimo Jolly, Friend of the Lowes
"More witnesses are coming up. They are doing more paper work, they are doing more charges against the man, and more witnesses are coming in."
Senior Superintendent Chester Williams - Officer Commanding Cayo Police
"Just please hold tight and be patient. I ask again to be patient and as soon as we have everything prepared then we will take him before the court where he will be arraigned for whatever charges that he will be getting. So again, patience."
Crowd chanting
"That is not justice."
The crowd wanted blood - and even their own townspeople could not convince them otherwise
Protester #4
"That's why we are here. We will make sure that he doesn't walk free."
When it was time to bring him out - even the commissioner - had to try to coax the crowd to move back. By that time the crowd was at full swell, stones in hand - a genuine multitude and they swelled into a chorus of roars when Bert Vasquez was brought out - you can her the sound of objects thing thrown at him as police ducked down and rushed him into the court building - which is the building above the police department.
Marisol Lowe, Mother of Deceased
"I wish that I can just grab a rope and just hang him. He don't know the pain of losing a daughter."
The crowd now with an effigy - now an angry mob - was not so gentle:
Protester #1
"We wanted him for 1 minute, 1 minute we wanted him for."
And they would want him more by the next day - when he was charged for assaulting 13 more girls:
Senior Superintendent Chester Williams
"When he was apprehended he was in the company of a minor in the vehicle and we have also receive statements from that minor and he is being dealt with in relation to that matter as well."
The next day there was no crowd at Columbus Park, a few onlookers - things were calm - the atmosphere cool - just another day in San Ignacio Jasmine's scout family still gathered around and on this day Bert Vasquez covered his face - as police rushed him up the stairs
Alberto Palma, Concerned citizen
"We won't be satisfied until we see the end of this. We want to see this guy charged and sent to Hattieville."
Monica Bodden
"There are people saying why were so many people out this side not knowing if he is really a child predator?"
Alberto Palma, Concerned citizen
"Well, what more evidence do we want? He tried to abduct so many little girls; he had one in his vehicle with him when he was caught. I think that is enough for us to be out here and to say he is the one that we are looking for."
When he came out he wore almost a smirk on his face - readied for transportation to Hattieville.
Senior Superintendent Chester Williams
"He is being transported to the Hattieville Prison as we speak; he is practically on his way."
He was put in one of the new police vans and driven off in a secured convoy - taken all the way down to the Hattieville prison:
Chris Lowe, Jasmine's Dad
"I hope the prison population gives him a warm reception when he reaches there."
Now, Bert Vasquez is in prison, public enemy number one, accused of a grisly murder - which - last we heard - was not a murder but an inconclusive cause of death.
Indeed, things have gone in different directions, remember when this shadowy care was nowhere in the picture and we all thought it was a white taxicab with a homicidal cabbie?
Glen Velasquez, Taxi Driver
"It's not a taxi man that did it. Thank God the people have seen it."
Rowland Parks, reporter
"Do you feel for certain that the police have the right man this time?"
Chris Lowe, Jasmine's Dad
"I am not really sure of anything at this point. They did find my daughter's ring but that doesn't prove that he killed her."
And while the court will deal with the case now - this rage that was on such prominent display was telling - whether it will ever get the satisfaction it wants is another matter.
Notably, the most serious case coming out of the recent Cayo roundup - apart from murder - is aggravated assault and forcible abduction. That involved a 13 year old female found in his vehicle when police arrested him. According to reports, his pants were down and a napkin was pulled over his private parts.
