A shocking story is unfolding tonight out of the Cayo District, one that’s raising serious concerns about the sexual abuse of minors. A well-known figure, Said “Badi” Guerra, who once served as Belize’s ambassador to Cuba and previously held the office of mayor in Benque Viejo del Carmen, is now facing serious criminal charges. Guerra, the brother of Cayo West Area Representative Miguel Guerra, was escorted to the magistrate’s court earlier today, where he was formally charged with four offenses, including sexual assault, harm, and procuring defilement by threat. It’s a dramatic fall from grace for someone who once represented Belize on the international stage. According to reports, the incident happened on July fourteenth. Guerra was allegedly in the company of a sixteen-year-old boy, and the two were reportedly drinking alcohol. That’s when the alleged assault took place. But it wasn’t until nine days later that a formal complaint was made at the Benque Viejo Police Station. After spending some time in police custody, Guerra appeared before a magistrate in the lower court, where he was granted bail set at ten thousand dollars, along with two sureties of the same amount. He was able to meet bail shortly after the hearing and walked out of court a free man, for now. Guerra took a moment to speak with reporters following his release, though he didn’t say much about the allegations.
Said “Badi” Guerra, Charged with Sexual Offenses
“I believe that it’s important that people know. People sometimes know the negative things, the false things, the incorrect things, but they need to know exactly what is going on. will not, and I must tell you that I will not get into details because, as you know, this is an ongoing process. It’s a, they’re doing their investigation and I would not want to compromise police’s investigation into the matter. One thing I must make mention of is, I am being wrongly accuse of rape. It is not rape and I would like whosoever [that] put it up on the media that term because it is not rape. So, that being said, I would like to mention three things, if you allow me, of course. So, this community knows me, Belize knows me. This community knows me because I’ve worked with children and young people over the years. Since I was very young, I was actually the youth president for the youth council of Cayo West at some point in time. So I’ve always worked with young people and children and this is the first time that these allegations pop up. It is the first time that I am seeing myself involved in these kind of things. That is fine. As I mentioned to some people, not all of us are immune, you know. No one is immune, I must say, to these kinds of things. That’s what I tell the people, the public out there, nobody is immune to these sort of things. Secondly, I would like to call on our community, our society, to please be a bit more compassionate. I’m not talking about me, not talking about myself, I am talking about every time there is an incident, there are some people happen to do things. The society immediately jumps up, condemns, crucifies when it’s only an allegation.”