分类： politics

It has been seven days since the normally quiet community of Indian Creek Village in Toledo unexpectedly captured national public attention, and the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the disappearance of First Alcalde Marcus Canti has yet to lift. Though Canti returned to his home just 36 hours after he suddenly vanished from his rural property, public demand for answers has only grown in the days since his reappearance. The local leader claims he was abducted by two unknown assailants, but law enforcement has released no official updates on the case, leaving residents and observers demanding full transparency and accountability from authorities.

On April 13, Canti disappeared without warning from his family farm. He resurfaced before dawn on April 15 on the outer edges of the village, unharmed beyond minor injuries but offering little detail about what transpired during his absence. According to initial police accounts, Canti told investigators he was taken against his will from his property by two men, held captive, and later released. Beyond that basic statement, no further information has been made public, leaving the unusual incident shrouded in ambiguity.

When pressed by reporters last week about whether investigators had confirmed Canti’s account of a forced abduction, ACP Hilberto Romero, head of the National Crime Investigation Branch, confirmed that the probe was still active. “We are carrying out a thorough investigation and so we’ll have all the facts when his statement is concluded today. So that is all I know at this time,” Romero stated on April 16.

To date, law enforcement has not issued any formal update on the reported abduction, beyond confirming that Canti presented with minor bruises and soreness when he returned home. While Canti was still missing, two leading local groups—the Toledo Alcalde Association and Maya Leaders Alliance—launched a community search and called on authorities to release all available information. But after Canti’s return, efforts to secure public clarity have hit a wall. Multiple attempts by News Five to contact Canti directly for comment have received no response, and a joint public statement released by the two organizations on Friday offered no new details, only noting that the incident is a serious matter and that a full official investigation had been requested.

Police have confirmed that five local residents were taken into custody for questioning in the early days of the probe, all of whom have since been released. Among those detained are three prominent local leaders: Indian Creek Village Chairman Domingo Choc, Second Alcalde Manuel Ack, and former Village Councilor Santiago Pop. All three have publicly denied any involvement in Canti’s disappearance.

“Each one of us was questioned and then we had proof. We showed them proof that all of us are innocent. So that is why we were released,” Choc explained in an interview on April 15.

Ack echoed that claim of innocence, saying: “The officer ask me, you know why you are here. I told him no sir. Then the man take a little minute and asked me again, sir do you know the Alcalde is missing? Sir, I don’t have no idea about that.”

Pop echoed the calls for full transparency to clear his name and the names of other detainees, saying: “I need to clear myself that I have not done anything as a criminal. So, I want to clear my name and the others’ name as well.”

Shortly after returning to the village, Canti traveled out of the Toledo District to receive outpatient care at a private medical clinic in Belmopan. News Five’s attempts to reach Canti at the clinic for comment were also unsuccessful. Adding another layer of uncertainty to the case is an unconfirmed audio recording that purports to capture Canti pleading for help during his captivity. Pressure continues to build on authorities to verify the authenticity of the recording, a step that has not yet been taken.

With the official investigation still ongoing and no new information forthcoming from Canti himself, the unresolved mystery of his 36-hour disappearance continues to hang over Indian Creek Village. This report was compiled by Paul Lopez for News Five, out of Belize.

In a newly announced government policy change for Belize’s public sector, the Public Service Union (PSU) has offered conditional support for a directive that freezes public officer transfers and extends current tour of duty terms. While the union frames the move as a welcome first step to address long-standing systemic flaws, it warns the order only delivers short-term relief and leaves deeper, costly problems unaddressed.

Dean Flowers, president of the PSU, laid out the union’s position in a recent interview, confirming full backing for the 2026 transfer freeze while calling for urgent additional reform. Flowers noted that while narrow exceptions for emergency transfers may be necessary, all such exceptions must require formal public justification to prevent abuse.

Flowers explained that the union has been advocating for an overhaul of the transfer system since 2021, in the aftermath of the global COVID-19 pandemic. He told reporters that in recent years, particularly following national election cycles, transfers have repeatedly been weaponized as a punitive tool rather than allocated based on operational efficiency or the well-being of public workers. Many transfers have forcibly separated public officers from their families, causing widespread unnecessary disruption to workers’ personal lives, according to Flowers.

The union documented widespread claims of vindictive misuse of transfer policies as early as 2022, when it collected hundreds of worker complaints that demonstrated consistent abuse of the system. Beyond the human cost, Flowers also highlighted the massive financial burden that unregulated transfers place on Belize’s public coffers.

According to the PSU’s analysis, the government of Belize spends more than $10 million annually on housing allowances alone for transferred public officers. That figure does not include the one-time transfer grants of $1,200 per officer, which add an estimated $200,000 in additional annual public spending. When extra hardship allowances for postings to high-cost, remote locations such as San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Placencia and Punta Gorda – which amount to $350 per officer – are factored in, total annual transfer-related spending reaches between $15 million and $20 million, a sum Flowers calls an unnecessary drain on public resources.

The union has laid out two key additional demands alongside its support for the freeze. First, it requires that all eligible public officers retain full access to their applicable allowances without interruption during the extended tour of duty period. Second, it is calling on Belize’s Ministry of Public Service to implement strict, ongoing monitoring of the directive’s implementation to ensure compliance and prevent loopholes that would allow misuse of the transfer system to continue.

This report is a transcript of an evening television broadcast, with all Kriol language speech transcribed using a standardized spelling system for publication.

For Belize’s Public Service Union (PSU), aligning with the sitting Briceño administration is a rare occurrence — so rare that when PSU leader Dean Flowers recently backed the government’s latest personnel transfer decision, critics quickly raised eyebrows. The core accusation leveled against Flowers and his union: that their long history of opposing government policy changes stems not from deeply held principle, but from a reflexive, habitual opposition to the status quo for its own sake. On April 21, 2026, Flowers pushed back hard against the claim, dismissing the criticism outright as baseless “hogwash” and laying out the intentional, principle-driven framework that guides the union’s positions.

In a response shared during a televised broadcast, Flowers emphasized that every public stance the PSU has taken is rooted in specific concerns, not blind opposition. He pointed to the union’s long-running criticism of the government’s Suspicious Activity Reporting Act (SARA) as a clear example: from the start, the union’s objections have centered on demands for transparency and policy justification, rather than a blanket rejection of change.

Flowers explained that the PSU has consistently asked Prime Minister Briceño, along with the country’s Director General and Financial Secretary, to provide concrete evidence and analysis to back the SARA policy. Specifically, the union wants the government to explain why the existing Tax Department cannot carry out the functions the government argues SARA is needed to deliver. He reaffirmed that the union only pushes back when policy lacks clear, justifiable reasoning, not for the sake of opposing.

Flowers also addressed the case of the NeoPeople initiative and the government’s plan to outsource public sector data management, including human resource records, to the third-party organization. He noted that experienced professionals who helped launch the Center for Information Technology and Organization (CITO) — using a grant from Taiwan to build the institution and earn it ISO certification — already have the in-house infrastructure, skills and capacity to manage all government data. From the PSU’s perspective, there is no justification for spending $3 million of taxpayer money annually to outsource a service the public sector can already provide effectively.

This report is a full transcript of an evening television news broadcast, edited for clarity and context.

A bitter public dispute over the reappointment of CARICOM Secretary General Dr. Carla Barnett has fractured the usually cohesive facade of the Caribbean regional bloc, with a retired top official warning that the open conflict could cause lasting damage to the organization’s core mission. The standoff erupted after Trinidad and Tobago issued a stark public ultimatum in late April 2026: it will withdraw critical financial contributions to the bloc unless member leaders revisit the approval of Barnett’s second term.

Trinidad and Tobago’s leadership has put forward two core grievances to justify its hardline position. Officials claim the bloc’s progress has ground to a standstill during Barnett’s first term, and add that Trinidad was denied any meaningful input when the decision to reappoint her was originally made. The position has pitted the twin-island nation directly against Belize, whose prime minister and foreign minister have both issued public statements unreservedly backing Barnett’s continued leadership.

The unprecedented public airing of internal tensions has drawn a sharp warning from Ambassador Byron Blake, a former Assistant Secretary General of CARICOM who retired from the bloc after decades of service. Blake argues that the public fight over the secretary general’s appointment is likely a distraction from deeper underlying rifts, framing the leadership dispute as little more than a “smoke screen” for broader disagreements within the bloc.

Even so, Blake stressed that the very fact the conflict has spilled into public view poses a severe threat to CARICOM’s functionality. In comments originally made during a televised evening broadcast, he noted that the organization has always historically resolved internal differences through closed-door caucuses and quiet diplomacy, and this open public clash over a leadership appointment has no precedent in CARICOM’s history.

“A public disagreement with the sitting secretary general is almost suicidal,” Blake explained. “It means that the secretary general, who has to move among countries and among heads of government, will not get cooperation in terms of the programs and the activities. And that then would really be very destructive for the movement.”

Beyond the immediate damage to ongoing initiatives, Blake added that the public dispute erodes trust in how CARICOM operates, casting doubt on the bloc’s ability to navigate internal differences to deliver collective progress for member states. He urged leaders to come to a swift resolution to the standoff, warning that prolonged division will only deepen harm to the regional integration project that CARICOM was built to advance.