GDF Lance Corporal Kurt Belgrave, 23 years of Cemetery Road, Lodge, Georgetown, today appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton charged with manslaughter committed on Colombian national Jose Arturo Castello Balcazar.
He was remanded to prison until June 20, 2011, for court at Kamarang.
Balcazar was allegedly shot and killed while travelling in a boat in the Wenamu River in the vicinity of Eteringbang on April 16, 2011.
Balcazar may have had a large quantity of gold, diamonds and cash in his possession when he was reportedly fatally shot by a soldier on Saturday.
The man’s reputed wife travelled to Georgetown yesterday to meet with police and to make funeral arrangements. The woman has indicated that when Balcazar left her he had “lots of gold, diamonds and money” in his possession.
These items, the woman explained through an interpreter, have gone missing. She did not give an estimated value of the items. Balcazar, she said, had left one location to travel to another.
She also said that Balcazar, who is a Colombian, had obtained a pass to travel through Venezuela. The deceased, according to her, did not have “papers” in Guyana. Balcazar, police had reported, operated a shop in the Eteringbang area.
Several efforts made to contact relevant police officials for a comment about the woman’s allegation about the missing valuables were futile.
A man, who works near where Balcazar and his reputed wife stayed, accompanied the woman to the city yesterday. Shortly after 1pm, the man told Stabroek News that Balcazar’s reputed wife could not speak English and his Spanish is limited.
The man explained that he was taking the woman to meet with the Commander of Police E&F Division David Ramnarine and then to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
“We are not ready to speak with the media yet,” he said. “We want to see how these meetings go and we are hoping to handle this matter diplomatically.”
He further stated that if Balcazar’s relatives were satisfied with what police and the GDF had to tell them then they would willingly cooperate.
“A life has been lost here and we have grieving people who expect justice,” the man said. “Once we believe that they [the armed forces] have honourable intentions of seeing that the appropriate action is taken then we would not want to go public…this country is already having a bad name on many counts and we do not want to give it one more.”
This newspaper further learnt that one of Balcazar’s lungs and his heart were damaged by bullets. A post-mortem examination was conducted on the body yesterday morning and it remains at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour.
Balcazar, 52, was shot dead while in a boat travelling along the Wenamu River in the vicinity of Arau, Eteringbang, in Region Seven. A source told Stabroek News on Tuesday that at the time of the incident there were four other persons in the boat with Balcazar, two Venezuelans and two Brazilians. Another source said yesterday that Balcazar was accompanied by three men and one woman.
Following the incident three soldiers were taken into custody.
The soldiers, this newspaper had learnt, were patrolling the area when they saw Balcazar and the four others in the boat. The soldiers, Stabroek News learnt, indicated to the men that they should stop but Balcazar, who was manning the boat, continued to proceed along his course.
A senior police source later reported that the two Venezuelans and two Brazilians were questioned. One of the men, the source reported, told police that shortly after the soldiers were “ignored” they heard two “explosions.” The man told police that seconds after he heard the sounds Balcazar collapsed.
