BELIZE CITY, Mon. May 31, 2021– The Belize Police Department will charge one teacher from San Joaquin, Corozal District, for the use of threatening words. Over the weekend, some text messages sent privately in the BNTU Corozal branch’s group chat were leaked.

The contents of the text message, sent in Spanish, were disturbing. One teacher, now in police custody, made serious threats against the lives of Cabinet ministers and their family members.

“In the end, they are only 26 of them,” the text message said. It further asked who would enlist to be involved in his proposed actions.

That teacher, whose name was obscured in the leaked message, has since been identified and detained by police.

“In those posts that he had sent, he was sending threats to Ministers and the family of Ministers, and to some extent was trying to recruit other persons to join him in that cause. Actions such as those cannot be countenanced and, as a department, we are investigating it. He is in police custody and will be charged for using threatening words. We are also looking into the possibility of charging under the Cybercrime Act,” stated Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams.

Unconfirmed reports were that the detained teacher’s colleagues from Corozal were planning to stage a protest in support of him. Commenting on those reports, Commissioner Williams added, “If you call yourself a person of the reputable standard, then you are not supposed to countenance any such behavior. Because a threat against a person, union member or not, is a crime, and I don’t think that union members or teachers should condone anybody who does such things. I believe that what the union should do is to come out and condemn his behavior as opposed to standing in solidarity with him.”