“They Just Came By Force”: Vendor Locked Out of Market Booths

Aaron Castillo buried his grief on camera Monday, paying tribute to an employee gunned down at his meat shop in the Michael Finnegan Market in Belize City. By Tuesday, City Council enforcement officers were changing the locks on his two booths.

Castillo, who has operated Jun’s meat shop in the market for more than twenty years, says he received no eviction date and no real warning before his booths were shut down over unpaid 2026 trade licence fees, fees he says he was actively working to pay off under an agreed arrangement with the council. “They came here the day before here after the shooting that happened on Monday; the next day they came and said they have to close me down because of the trade licence.”

Castillo doesn’t deny owing the money. What he disputes is being locked out despite having what he describes as a payment plan already in place, one he says he has receipts to prove. “I know I didn’t pay my trade licence, but we had an agreement that I would pay through the courts little by little. I agreed to the agreement, and I got some receipts to show you.”

According to Castillo, enforcement officers moved to seal off his booths entirely. “They just came by force and locked me down. I told them we have an agreement; why would you lock me down?” He says the council’s own records should have worked in his favour, not against him. “They are seeing I am making payment, so they decided that they will still lock me down for no reason.”

The timing has hit particularly hard. With back-to-school expenses on the horizon and daily bills still due, Castillo says the closure threatens far more than just a business. “I told them I have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and school is opening here. They are taking everything from me. I don’t see that as fair for me, what they are doing to me.”

Castillo is now calling on government to intervene, pointing to his two decades in the market, a history that stretches back to when his father worked there before him. “For them to do me this… I do a lot of things in this market for them to shut me down for a little amount of money. They want to take away my two spots to give other people.”

His frustration has since turned toward market leadership directly. “The first thing is that this market manager has to go.”