BELIZE CITY–Last month, it made national headlines when the Opposition People’s United Party (PUP) Orange Walk North standard-bearer Ramon “Monchi” Cervantes, Jr., was threatened with a lawsuit by his political opponent, the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP)’s Hon. Gaspar “Gapi” Vega, the Deputy Prime Minister of Belize and the Minister of Natural Resources and Agriculture, if he did not apologize and pay damages for defamation of character, for causing a conversation in Spanish which implicated him, Vega, in the murder of Ramon Cervantes, Sr., to be broadcasted on LOVE FM.
However, Cervantes, Jr., told Amandala tonight, Thursday, that he has not been served with any court papers from Hon. Vega’s attorney.
Earlier this week, Cervantes’ attorney, Said Musa, S.C., had confirmed that his client has not contacted him about any communication from Hon. Vega’s attorney.
Writing through his attorney, Rodwell Williams, S.C., the Prime Minister’s law partner, on Sunday, November 9, 2014, Hon. Vega demanded a retraction and an apology from Cervantes. Cervantes was supposed to apologize by Monday, November 17, 2014, or face the legal consequences.
The threatened lawsuit was over a broadcast that the Cervantes family aired on LOVE FM, on Wednesday, November 5, during a memorial service for Ramon Cervantes, Sr., who was abducted and murdered in early July.
In the broadcast of the recorded conversation which purportedly took place on October 8 between Mrs. Vilma Cervantes, the widow of Ramon Cervantes, Sr., and the man Orange Walk police said was the mastermind behind the murder of Cervantes, Sr., Manuel “El Pelon” Castillo, Castillo implicated Hon. Vega in the murder, although he provided no proof whatsoever.
The Cervantes family has since given the Orange Walk police a copy of the conversation.
There has, however, been no response from the Orange Walk police, some of whose members were implicated in the murder plot.
The only action taken by Orange Walk Police subsequent to the submission of the recorded conversation, has been the charging of one of their own, internally, for a pair of handcuffs that was found on the body of the businessman and former politician, Ramon Cervantes, Sr.
