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World Down Syndrome Day

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From the Publisher

PublisherFrom the Publisher

I guess this would have happened in 1992 thereabouts, because the late Gerald Garbutt was general manager of KREM Radio at the time. After the change of government from PUP to UDP in June of 1993, Gerald was given a licence for his own radio station by the UDP’s Dean Barrow. Check the stats.

So, we are talking about 31 years ago, and all these years I’ve abided by the unofficial line that this story must not be publicized, because it might create some kind of danger for Belize from revolutionary elements in the region. 

For me, I felt that somewhere down the line I would tell the story in a fictional format, but it doesn’t seem to me that you can make a living in Belize writing fiction. But I always felt that the young BDF soldier who fired an incredible rifle shot to save the lady ambassador from Salvador to Belize from injury or death, should have received some credit for his feat sometime down the road. It’s never happened.

A few years ago, I saw him at a Supreme Court opening. We were not acquainted, but I said to him, ‘they tell me you are the guy who saved the Salvador ambassador’. He was now a senior police officer. All he did was smile, if I remember correctly.

A couple years ago I was accompanying Rufus X on a tour of a few Belize River Valley villages, and Rufus told me yes, that is the guy. For me, such a man should have received national hero status, or some special award/gift.

It happened like this. A Salvadoran revolutionary, or terrorist, or whatever, had kidnapped the lady Salvador ambassador from her offices in Belmopan.

As the drama unfolded, the two ended up in a vehicle off the Western Highway around Mile 12, Mile 13. Belize’s security personnel were on the other, southern side of the highway (Mr. Torres insists ours are not “highways,” merely roads, and I must agree with him,)

I think it was Garbutt who had been tipped off about the original abduction, and I believe I was accompanying him. We were a distance away from the actual scene. At one point, I think the kidnapper had actually asked to speak to the editor of Belize’s leading newspaper, which at the time was yours truly. There was drama out there, cherie.

In any case, as the story was later explained to me, the kidnapper had hung a towel in the vehicle to prevent a sniper from spotting and shooting him. Both he and the ambassador were behind the towel. But, the kidnapper apparently made some kind of mistake which enabled our hero to pick him out and pick him off. One shot. Ambassador saved, by a Belizean superhero.

Rufus introduced me to him. A humble man. And the story was never told. It was hushed up, and lost in Belizean history. 

I remember attending a Bliss Institute lecture where the UWI’s Sir Hilary Beckles said that the British colonial authorities maintained and saved all the records, so that it is possible to do any and all important research about the colonial era and our ancestors’ experiences.

There is a department of our security forces here called “Special Branch.” In America, they call it the Secret Service. What has always intrigued me is what happens to all the records and reports and photographs when there is a change of government, especially when such a change took place for the very first time, in 1984. The job of the Special Branch from 1964 (self-government) would have been to spy on the opponents of the ruling PUP, opponents such as the UDP. But now the UDP had become the government. Suddenly, the PUP had become the opponents. So, what happened then?        

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