And we return now to Jules Vasquez to continue narrating the events of the day. Jules, the morning was pretty calm, almost anti-climactic, but that all changed in the afternoon.
Jules Vasquez,
Certainly the Prime Minister's maneuver had worked and though as you saw in those interviews that Keith did, there was a lot of emotion in the crowd, at the same time there wasn't that decided militance. There are a number of reasons for that but a large part of it has to do with the crowd control measures that were erected. The entire area as we showed last night on the news was pretty much barbed wire. So you couldn't move freely. The press couldn't move freely and that really limited what we could and the crowd was unable to formulate itself into a militant core and the chains were strong. Usually the drama starts when the chains start breaking but the chains have been double reinforced.
So in the morning you had that sense of being anti-climatic, no vote being taken, and it appeared nothing would happen but at 1:40 pm they managed to break the steps and that gives you something to stone. You know the stairs of Independence Hill famously stoned into the Assembly Building. Well they managed to get splinters of the stairs and then the stoning began. I think we have footage of when the stoning began, we had multiple cameras there.
You can see, we basically with the protest area, and 1:40 pm they deployed the riot squad which was waiting in the winds. And so the recruits were sent back and the riot squad is brought on the frontline and we see them being stoned.
Now what you can't see here, and we have the entire angle, but is that Mr.
Jeffries is at the back. They have formed this shield at the front and Me. Jeffries is at the back and so they are stoning sticks which were the signs, the placards were being held on those sticks and there are also stoning rocks from the stairs.
But you can see from behind, Mr. Jeffries is preparing himself with canisters of tear gas. Most of the canisters, from what we could see, were defective. So it wasn't doing anything other than irritating the crowd. It wasn't having any effect.
Indira Craig,
Was there anything in particular that escalated things?
Jules Vasquez,
The simple thing that happened is that they started to stone and when they started to stone the riot squad came out. It is as simple as that. What they were also stoning at were the cameras that the Special Branch people were using. The way the media is treated in this situation is completely ridiculous. The media sequestered to an area. We are treated like criminals. We are trying to deliver images to thousands of people but the Government Press Officer and the Police Special Branch were allowed to roam freely with their cameras and the protestors targeted them. That's when the stoning started.
Now we see a tear gas canister that Mr. Jeffries deployed which actually worked and that started to have an effect of crowd dispersal. Right there is where the crowd was in its heart and tear gas was very effective as my cameraman can tell you.
So it's driving the crowd back, all this is happening between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, over a 40 minute and it's having a very successful effect. At this point now the riot squad starts to advance down the stairs. So it's having the effect of breaking up the protest.
Now they threw a tear gas back and that's when the whole event turned because
you can see the tear now releasing completely there and you can see it wafting away.
But now the smoke is wafting into the House, Finnegan asked them to adjourn the House.
[Finnegan Asking for Adjournment]
I think the Minister of Home Affairs asked the Leader of the Opposition to let's call it to a close. This is consequential because the Leader of the Opposition had presented his motion to ask the members of the House to disapprove of the Prime Minister's action in making a guarantee without the knowledge of the Cabinet. So he and the Opposition were presenting on that, therefore government members were ignoring it and they were outside. Basically only Johnny Briceno was sitting when the tear gas came into the chamber. But the Opposition was presenting on that motion. Its consequential because they were asking, by a division, they are asking members to vote on that division.
It was decided at the caucus yesterday that regardless of what government Ministers may choose to vote next week Friday when the vote is taken, they will all vote down the motion today. But the UDP still presented it. I think they had another but the Leader of the Opposition in consultation with the Minister of Home Affairs who was concerned, I gather, about the increasing security situation outside, they agreed not to ventilate the second motion and to cut the meeting short. Neither Mark Espat nor Cordel Hyde were there when the division was taken so they did not vote on the motion. They left when the tear gas started to be stoned.
Indira Craig,
Jules can you give us an idea of what type of people you had within the crowd?
Jules Vasquez,
First of all the crowd was pretty big. It is hard to get a very accurate number, although we try every time. It's hard because they were dispersed over so many areas but you had, I'd say many people from the north, many from Belize City. So you had a fair mix of people. So you had a big crowd, you had a large cross section of the population. It's hard to estimate but certainly the crowd was over two thousand. PUP had a smaller crowd in another area and they went home before any of this ruction started.
So we have taken you to where the tear gas is thrown, the House meeting is suspended for five minutes and the House meeting is pretty much a cut short because of what's happening outside. So now we go to what we call the fifth stage -which is the after tear gas is thrown and the meeting is finished. The riot squad is advancing and trying to disperse them completely from Belmopan which is where a little bit more hell breaks loose. This is between 3:30 and 4 pm.
We see them driving the crowd back and these are in general not people who want to make ruckus. But on the other side, near the Lands Department it was a rough crowd, they were breaking up that building. Here is the Department of Lands building that they stoned one of the glass and broke that up and see the riot squad still advancing here. We have some audio from Dean Barrow who came and tried to calm down the crowd.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"What has happened is entirely the fault of the Prime Minister. This man can't do what he is doing. He has already screwed us with the $33 million, he play games in terms of the meeting today and the vote, and then he wants to turn around and suggest that the UDP and the people got something to feel guilty about because deteriorated. And we are coming back again next week."
Jules Vasquez,
Question to Said Musa: Sir about the crowd out here today?
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"People have a right to express themselves in our democracy but people do not have a right to resort to violence."
Jules Vasquez,
But did you hear what they had to say sir?
[Musa Driving Away]
Jules Vasquez,
Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Here now I told you there was a rougher crowd over by the market. This is the Belmopan market where the trees have been trashed, some of the glass shutters on the buildings have broken. This is the riot squad advancing through the market, trying to push the crowds back, advancing very systematically and deliberately. The Lands Department on one side, the market on the other both sustained some damage.
Also in the parking lot of the market, a vehicle was thrashed. I think they tried to set it on fire but they didn't succeed but the four glass were broken and the fuel tank had been tampered with. But Mr. Orio, Superintendent Orio, he tried to personally detained and he got pelted with stones. Yelloman we know got hit with a rubber pellet but I think he is alright.
So now we are at the terminal stage and the support riot teams came from the BDF to systematically drive these groups out. As mentioned they did damage to the Lands Department, they did damage to the market, and they also did damage
to the Social Security building. I am told they thrashed ten cars in the driveway and broke down the fence for the Social Security Building and stoning down a couple employees from Social Security. This is what the sentiment was like out there, this was the rage was like. They wanted to tear up Belmopan, the riot squad was systematic in its advance.
Here is the market scene as the crowds as running, they are stoning, they have already to some extent thrashed the market.
Now is the part, Mr. Jeffries is trying to chase everybody back, he is on a roll. He is a manic state of mind. I have to believe that his superiors are happy with this kind of behavior, which I think here is in order but he trips later on. Here we have the riot squad and that's Marcel Cardona, former Senator, and UDP candidate.
So the police descended with a very strong presence, a very forceful presence to mop things up, a very purposeful mop-up.
