Guyana ferry captain charged with murder over 73 deaths

By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): The MV Barima disaster has become a murder case. The captain and two crew members of the Guyanese passenger ferry that capsized with catastrophic loss of life were charged with murder on Tuesday, more than a week after the disaster killed 73 people and left 30 others still missing.

As reported by Reuters, Captain Kevin Price, 40, and crew members Rondell Dwayne Roberts, 42, and Delon Granderson, 33, appeared before a Georgetown court on the murder charges. They were not required to enter pleas, and the news agency could not immediately reach the defendants or their representatives for comment. The three were remanded to prison, with the case adjourned to August 3.

The charges attach to a tragedy whose dimensions have grown darker with each disclosure. The MV Barima, an 87-year-old ship, sank on July 18 while travelling from Georgetown to the northwestern village of Port Kaituma. Authorities say 76 passengers and crew were rescued, and believe 179 people were on board, far more than early reports indicated.

Prime Minister Mark Phillips has said that two of the crew members, including the captain, tested positive for marijuana following the accident, and that many of those on board had never been listed on the vessel’s passenger manifest. The Prime Minister maintained, however, that the vessel had been deemed seaworthy and had kept up with its maintenance schedule, an assertion the official inquiry will now test.

That inquiry carries a Belizean signature. President Irfaan Ali’s Commission of Inquiry into the disaster is chaired by Justice Godfrey Smith of Belize, the former Attorney General and CARICOM High-Level Representative for Law and Criminal Justice, leading an international panel empowered to determine whether negligence, misconduct, or institutional failures contributed to the tragedy. A wide-ranging investigation into the ferry services, run by the Transport and Harbours Department under the Ministry of Public Works, is also underway.

The political reckoning has begun in parallel. Opposition lawmakers have called for the resignations of Public Works Minister Juan Edghill and Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar.

As with any criminal matter, the three accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty before the court.

For the families of the 73 recovered and the 30 still missing, Tuesday’s charges mark the first formal step toward accountability, with the deeper answers, how an 87-year-old ferry came to carry an uncounted crowd into disaster, resting with the courts and the Belizean-led commission. Breaking Belize News will continue to follow the case.

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