A funeral service was held on Sunday, September 30, for Benque’s ex-mayor and teacher, Carlos Ignacio Leon, 53, who died last week Friday, September 28, from stomach complications.
Leon’s body was found lying in an area about 125 feet off the “Old Water Hole” in the municipality.
According to police, Leon, a teacher of Mopan High School, had what appeared to be vomit, mixed with blood, on his clothing.
They say that sometime around 10:00 a.m. on Friday, Leon, who was on sick leave because of suffering from an ulcerated stomach, left home to go to a nearby store.
Yesterday, Amandala spoke with Leon’s family, who told us that there was no post-mortem conducted on the body because of his past medical condition.
A doctor certified that Leon died from hemorrhagic shock, upper gastrointestinal bleeding and/or neoplasm ulcer.
The doctor also told them that teacher Leon died at 10:30 a.m., some 30 minutes after leaving home.
On Friday morning, teacher Leon who had barely been sleeping for the past three weeks, told relatives that he was going for a walk, but they became worried when he did not return.
Relatives searched the area and after their efforts were futile, they reported him as missing.
It would be some six hours later that a family friend spotted Leon’s body and told the family.
His eldest son, Carlos Alexie Leon, 21, told Amandala that Teacher Leon, prior to his sudden death, was living a fulfilled life as a Christian.
He was married to Olibi Leon for 22 years, and the couple had four children, all boys, ages 21, 19, 16 and 13.
But life changed drastically for him two months ago, said Carlos, when he was diagnosed with a bacteria known as H-pylori, and he began receiving treatment as an outpatient.
What really killed him could have been detected some months ago when he was advised by a doctor to go to Guatemala to do an endoscopy.
However, that never happened because his father was afraid of doctors, said Carlos.
Despite their efforts to convince him to take the trip, he refused, said his son.
An endoscopy would have told doctors what was happening within Leon’s stomach, and maybe, something could have been done.
Although Leon had been experiencing stomach problems from his early teenage years, he knew what to do and how to treat it then, said his son. Medications had been helping him in his younger years, but after the problem grew over time, not even that brought real comfort; it only helped for a while.
But his deteriorating health did not stop him from going about life as usual. He was the kind of person that made things look great even when they really weren’t, said Carlos.
His health was one of them because he did not want to burden his family, we learned.
In the mid eighties, at around 1985 to sometime around 1988, Leon served his country as the Mayor of Benque Viejo Del Carmen, representing the United Democratic Party.
At that time, his oldest child was not yet born.
“My father served as mayor until about when I was three, said Carlos, as he reminisced about his father.
After leaving the political arena, Leon became an immigration officer until 1992, when he ventured into teaching, an occupation and duty he performed with love and dedication until the time of his death.
He served for 15 years in that field and was employed at Mopan High School in Benque.
Carlos Ignacio Leon was a good father, husband and friend, said relatives, and that’s how he will be remembered.
(For more information on this story, please see page 31, of this issue of the Amandala in an article titled, “Benque teacher, Carlos Ignacio Leon, 56, found dead – no foul play, said police.”)