Update: 2 more bodies found up North of San Pedro

Officers enroute to the crime scene.

Update:

At 4:30 p.m. police positively identified the remains found 19 miles North of San Pedro Town, approximately 2 miles from Tranquility Bay. James Swan and Edwardo Gutierrez both went missing on Thursday according to family members. The two bodies were found lying facing each other in a grave dug three feet underground. Police investigation continues.

Officers investigating the crime scene.

Edwardo Gutierrez

Police have confirmed to The San Pedro Sun that at least one person is known to be dead some 16 miles north of San Pedro Town in the Rocky Point Area, Ambergris Caye. Police would not release further details, but a tearful and distressed Elena Edwards told The San Pedro Sun that she strongly believes the body might be that of her son, James Alexander Swan, who, according to her, went missing since Thursday, January 29th. Edwards says that the last person James was seen with was Elias “Brah Lee” Gutierrez.

When asked what James might be doing north of the island, Elena says that they are fishermen and that is the area where they normally go fishing.

A team of investigators led by Senior Superintendent James Magdaleno and Officer In Charge of the San Pedro Police Department Dennis Arnold has been dispatched to the area to process the scene. The San Pedro Sun will have more details in this weeks issue of The San Pedro Sun Newspaper!

Cuban group note drop in political prisoners

A dissident group in Cuba has issued a new report noting a drop in the number of political prisoners, but says that arbitrary detentions continue. The Cuban Human Rights Commission says the number of political prisoners fell from 234 in 2007 to 205 last year. Last week Cuba invited the United Nations special investigator on torture to visit the island this year, as Havana defends its rights record. Cuba is due to present a report on the human rights situation later this week to the new Human rights Council. Regional response needed...

Latin American leaders assembled Monday to mark the 10th anniversary of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's rise to power, a period described by state-run television as "a decade of successes."
Chavez and representatives of the leftist group Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas, or ALBA, walked through the National Pantheon, a square on the edge of the old town of Caracas that holds the sarcophagus of Simon Bolivar, whom Chavez credits with inspiring him as "the father of the revolution."
In attendance were presidents Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Jose Manuel Zelaya of Honduras and Evo Morales of Bolivia; Roosevelt Skerrit, prime minister of Dominica; and Cuba's first vice president, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura.
Absent was Chavez's friend and mentor, former Cuban President Fidel Castro, who has been sick. But that didn't stop Chavez from addressing him.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, center, is flanked by Bolivia's Evo Morales, right, and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega.

Seeds of anarchy planted Sat

It is a tragic and terrible day in northern Belize as anarchy was loosed in the area of the Tower Hill Factory in Orange Walk. Credible reports say one man has died and at least four are injured after clashes between police and protestors. But the seeds of that anarchy was planted many days earlier. Both sides knew they would eventually block the road – and indeed from Saturday hostilities started to spark up between the police who were protecting the sugar factory and the cane farmers who were holding firm outside of it. On Saturday tear gas was released on a few farmers as police had to clear a road. Hearing the news Keith Swift headed to Orange Walk and he found farmers already cultivate the resolve and the hardline that came to bear on those terrible events this afternoon.

Keith Swift Reporting,This was Tower Hill on Saturday – police men standing guard at the road leading uphill to block these roughly one hundred sugar cane farmers and their families. The police men were armed with guns and - one even equipped with tear gas to keep them at bay but the farmers remained calm and resolute.

Francisco Tillett, Cane Farmer“From last night we were here and we will be here night in, day out and we will stay here.”

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Source: Channel 7 News