All across Belize City, office buildings and storefronts remained shuttered throughout the business day. Albert Street, the commercial thoroughfare of Indian owned businesses, looked more like Sunday morning than a usually bustling Thursday. With the exception of Romacs Plaza and the Brodies, who opened in spite of the call for a business shutdown, the Central Business District was quiet. Even the food vendors in Central Park stayed away from their places of business in support of the Belizeans For Justice's call for a shutdown to protest the deadly murder spree of last Sunday that claimed six lives in a single day.
Across the City, Insurance Companies, toy stores, clothing stores and even Simon Quan, and Publics Stores, closed their doors to customers. Larger companies like Smart also closed their offices and business centers at midday as an expression of solidarity against the senseless killings.
Among the victims was eight year old Eyanni Nunez of Zericote Street whose home was riddled with high powered weaponry, one of which tore through her tiny body as she lay sleeping in her bed. This vile act stood out among the carnage of the bloody Sunday so much that it galvanized citizens of the old capital to rise up and honor Eyannie by calling for and participating in a shutdown on the day she is being laid to rest.
All Saints Church, the tents erected outside and indeed the entire church yard was filled to overflowing with mourners turned silent protesters ranging from employees of the Publix Supermarket chain, student union and faculty of UB, representatives of all the high schools in the city, political figures and her extended family, the Lake I neighborhood and the grieving mothers fathers and family members of the hundreds of others who have been lost to the senseless violence of the city’s streets over the past two years.
As the funeral cortege wound its way from All Saint's Church to the Lord Ridge Cemetery, the silence gave way to sobs as students bearing placards calling for an end to the violence, friends and neighbours lined the streets in protest and to bid farewell to little Eyannie, who in the words of many, has gone too way too soon.
The harsh reality of the death of a child could very well be the tipping point for a society that so far this year has seen 94 murders, hundreds of shootings and the explosion of grenades in residential neighbourhoods.
During the Service of thanksgiving for little Eyanni, her teacher who read her eulogy said, "She was a friendly little and is well remembered at her school she attended up until her death – All Saint's Anglican School. In addition, she enjoyed spending time with her maily and just enjoyed the love that always surrounded her."
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Source: The Belize Times
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