This morning, the Hungry Monkey, an establishment that specialized in selling subway-type sandwiches, located on North Front Street, Belize City, was the scene of the death of businessman and co-owner, Mario Varacalli.
It was reported that the employees opened up the establishment and found Varacalli, a Canadian national who resides on San Pedro, lying on a bench at one of the customer tables in the back of the building, apparently dead, with his financial documents near him.
There was no evidence of physical violence on his body, but employees believe that he took an overdose of medication.
Varacalli usually slept in the establishment whenever he stayed in Belize City, and it was not considered strange that he was locked inside the building last night after employees left.
Varacalli’s wife, overcome with emotion, did not speak to the press.
There is no hard evidence at this time, before the post-mortem, to say definitively that Varacalli committed suicide, but employees say that because of the bad state of his business due to the hard economic times, he had been talking in that vein for some time.
It was reported that earlier in the day, there may have been indications of his intention to kill himself. He reportedly told his employees that they “would not see him again.”
Up to press time, the police have yet to send any official information on the death of Mario Varacalli.
The Hungry Monkey was opened in February 2010, and it is a subsidiary of the main business that is located on San Pedro. It was reported that the sandwiches were priced a bit higher that similar businesses, which may have contributed to the financial difficulties the establishment was facing.
The last businessman to commit suicide recently, as far as our records show, was Oscar Ayuso, Jr. He died on Friday night, July 24, 2009, at his residence in the Bella Vista area of Belize City. He was Belize’s ambassador to the Vatican and the Honorary Consul of Sweden to Belize. He also was a senator and First Deputy Leader of the UDP, from 1999 to 2006.
As a businessman, he was the managing director of G. Ayuso and Sons Limited and G. Ayuso and Sons Travel Agency.