Belize City, Sat. Sept. 18, 2021– Last Saturday, former Belize City mayor, Zenaida Moya, who is one of the persons at the forefront of the Belize Rights and Justice Movement (BRJM) — an organized effort to oppose the vaccination campaign being carried out in the country — was handcuffed and carted away in a police mobile for her organization of an illegal protest. Not long after the recent announcement that persons seeking to enter public buildings after October 1 will have to present proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test result, reports began to surface that multiple protests were being planned by persons opposed to the vaccination program. Several of these planned protests did not take place, but the BJRM demonstration, which started at the Battlefield Park, attracted a number of Belizeans who support the movement.
Commissioner of Police Chester Williams told local reporters that the BRJM did not request a permit to host such a gathering, which was in direct violation of the current COVID-19 regulations, which prohibit more than 10 persons from meeting at any particular location. As a result, the group, whose procession was nearing Cinderella Plaza in the King’s Park area of Belize City, was advised to disperse. The protesters apparently did not comply with those orders, and it has been reported that instead of ending, the protest intensified and more people joined the procession.
“Instructions were given to Mr. Rosado to disperse the crowd that was protesting in Belize City, and I know for a fact that they were spoken to in the first instance and were asked to disperse, simply because, one: they were in breach of the COVID-19 regulations and, two: they were protesting without a permit. But it would appear that instead of the crowd getting smaller, the crowd got huger,” explained Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams to reporters. He then related to local media what the Police Department’s response was to the protesters’ refusal to disperse: “Myself and Mr. Rosado dialogued, and I told Mr. Rosado to give them one final warning and if they did not cooperate then the GI3 must be brought in to ensure that they disperse and that the ringleader of the group must be arrested. It was with that spirit that Zenaida Moya was detained by the police,” he said.
By Saturday evening, several videos circulating on social media showed a large group of antivaxxers holding posters, and swarming around the police as they arrested Moya. One video in particular shows members of the GI3 struggling to detain Moya as she resisted detention, and one female officer had to place her in a headlock while a number of other officers placed her in the backseat of a police mobile. While Commissioner Williams stated that he feels the police “exercised great restraint in dealing with her”, Moya told a news outlet immediately after her release that she was targeted and “man-handled”.
According to Moya, she was simply walking on the sidewalk when she was swarmed by the police and thrown into a police truck. Moya also claimed that her wrists were injured during the attempts to detain her. It is also to be noted that she was not wearing a mask at that time, and her excuse for her violation of this fundamental Covid-19 protocol is that she suffers from sinus issues and cannot breathe while wearing a mask. Police charged her for that mask-wearing violation, as well as for organizing a demonstration without a permit and for organizing a gathering of more than ten persons. Police Commissioner Williams has further said that those protesters who were captured on film will also be summoned to court for their participation in the illegal demonstration.
Moya has since secured the legal services of attorney Norman Rodriguez, who will be representing her in court when she answers to the charges brought against her. Incidentally, attorney Arthur Saldivar, who is also a member of the BRJM, and who has been contracted to represent an estimated 200 antivaxxers who will be mounting a legal challenge of the recent regulations introduced by the GOB, also sounded off on the acts of the police. He said that they are continuously in violation of citizens’ rights. When asked about the charges brought against Moya, he stated that he doesn’t believe they will stick:
“I believe that they are baseless. Again, Zenaida Moya is an individual in Belize. She is a citizen of Belize. And certainly, when persons came forward to go on this walk, they did so on their own volition. Zenaida had nothing to do with that. She was just a participant in a walk. I happened to have been in the area at the same time. I saw what was going on. I saw that Ms. Moya was being interviewed. I was asked to come. I went over there. So would I have been arrested for being at the Battlefield Park and giving an interview? No,” he said.
He went on to say, “So at that particular juncture I don’t believe that anything that was brought against Zenaida will stand. The reason is they say that she organized something. She never did organize anything. People came. There was a worldwide call for persons to come and show their displeasure with what was taking place. A worldwide call. It was seen all over social media. Anybody who wanted to answer the call could’ve come. And those persons that came answered that call. That was not Zenaida Moya’s call.”