Arrest Warrants Issued for Teachers After Protest Gridlocks

This morning, arrest warrants were been drawn up for several teachers following yesterday’s mechanical failure movement across the country. At this hour, however, Police Commissioner DR. Anthony Rosado is in meeting with union leaders, Nadia Caliz and Dean Flowers in Belmopan. The meeting got underway at about five o’clock and it all has to do with yesterday’s road blockages staged by the Belize National Teachers’ Union and the criminal charges that have now followed. In an interview with the Police yesterday, ASP Stacie Smith, told Love News that the department respects the rights and freedoms of expression for teachers. She noted, however, that those rights are not to infringe on the rights of drivers and other citizens. For a recap of today’s developments, we join Reporter Jaleeza Roberts.

Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: Wednesday, June 11th is the court date set for several teachers to appear in Dangriga’s magistrates court. It is a development that came today after arrest warrants were drafted due to the mechanical failure movement that teachers undertook yesterday across the country. It is a move by the police that has many teachers irate and feeling disrespected, confirmed by BNTU’s Stann Creek Branch secretary, Ifasina Efunyemi. 

Ifasina Efunyemi, BNTU Secretary Stann Creek Branch: “It’s very alarming, disturbing and disheartening to see that the police department, our partners in this fight, because as we know, they as essential workers are not able to take industrial action. And so, but they are affected exactly the same way that we are in terms of their increments being frozen, their 10 % being taken from their salaries. and the fact that they have to be facing the very high cost of living and inflation in this country. So our fight is actually their fight as well. They are public servants just like us as teachers. So it’s very, very disheartening and disappointing. And it is, as a matter of fact, an act of bad faith on the part of the authorities, the people in government who are giving the directive to officers who are trained to take commands to then use the state, the law, the justice system against us as workers who have the right to take industrial action. At the end of the day, they claimed also in their statement, the statement that ASP Smith made, unfortunately falsehoods were used in that statement. They claimed that they gave us two hours, that their response was measured but the video will show that the measure of their response was excessive and that is clearly visible in the video. This issue that we are facing with the government is an issue that is common to  all of us.”

Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: Since the news broke of the warrants and pending court arraignments, several lawyers have come forward to stand in solidarity with the teachers. These include Norman Rodriguez and Sharon Pitts.

Norman Rodriguez, Attorney: “They have been summoned, they will have to go before the court arraigned and a date will be set for them to return for disclosure. Bail will be considered and we don’t believe that that will be retained by the magistrate and we go through the usual process. The due process.”

Sharon Pitts, Attorney: “Well it seems to me that basically warrants have been issued and if they are acted upon and if charges are made and if they actually go ahead to proceed with these people before the court then of corse we maintain the constitution as the protector and what binds our people and conscience against excess reach, state overreach and what seems to be abuse of people.”

Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: Pitts went public on social media announcing her plans to provide legal representation for the teachers. By three o’clock this afternoon, the attorney was on her way to Dangriga to meet with the teachers and to begin mounting a case for her new clients. But there was another development in the entire saga as the president of the Belize National Teachers Union, BNTU, Nadia Caliz, had been summoned by the police commissioner for a meeting. A meeting that got underway at around five o’clock this evening. Flanked by her union colleague, PSU’s Dean Flowers, attorney Arthur Saldivar, and union senator Glenfield Denison, Caliz spoke to our newsroom correspondent on her way to that meeting.

Nadia Caliz, BNTU National President: “I have also received information and I have said an allegation that there was a warrant for my arrest. I don’t know what I did. I was taken aback by that and I’m happy now that we have gone from a warrant to a meeting, because I’m very much interested in what is going on and all the allegations surrounding my name.”

Reporter: So as far as you know, this is just a meeting. You won’t be charged? 

Nadia Caliz, BNTU National President: “As far as I know, it’s just a meeting. I haven’t done anything. And if expressing my democratic right is now a crime in this country, then we have to pay attention to the Belize constitution, what is going on with that.  And I’m not going to live in fear and dwindle away and all of that. No. I’m a born Belizean, I love every single blade of grass, everything Belizean. But nobody is going to, and nobody, sorry is going to take it away from me. In every sense of what it means to be a Belizean, nobody, nobody, nobody.” 

Reporter: What do you make of your teachers being charged? 

Nadia Caliz, BNTU National President: “Well, it’s a scare tactic. I call it a scare tactic and like I said, when you live in a democratic country you have every right to express yourself. Yes, of course with rights comes responsibility but we have to look at the evidence before we assume that what they’re saying is actually like that. And so when you look at the charges and what transpired they’re not  corresponding at all. They’re not matching.”

Reporter: What was your first reaction when you got the notice that your teachers are being summoned?

Nadia Caliz, BNTU National President:“I was taken aback. I was wondering why, why, why, why is it that they’re being charged? Because what I saw when I saw the recording, for me, it doesn’t call for charging any at all, any kind of charges to be levied against my teachers. The police aggravated the situation. They did.”
Jaleeza Roberts, Love News: Up to news time this evening, the outcome of that meeting was yet to be ascertained. As for the charges levied against the teachers, Eli Vialta of Silkgrass has been charged for obstruction of a police officer during the execution of his duties. Other teachers as well as civilians facing charges on this matter are Rosalyn Cornelius, Denise Henry, Derek Martinez, Ifashina Efunyemi, Loretta Montero, Fidalia Castillo, Victor Williams, Clifton Lorenzo, Francis Williams,  and Derek Walton, all of the Stan Creek District.  The charge levied is for the unlawful assembly with the purpose of committing a riot. It is a fluent situation that Love News will keep monitoring. Jaleeza Roberts, Love News.

It is to be noted that the BNTU did not acquire any permit to assemble in any of the areas blocked yesterday.