Editing 2005 Belize unrest (section)

=== April 20 ===
At about 1:00 pm that Wednesday afternoon, students of the [[University of Belize]], Faculty of Management and Social Sciences, walked out of their campus on College Street in West Landivar and went to rouse students from schools in the area, including [[St. John's College, Belize|St. John's College High School and Junior College]], Edward P. Yorke, Nazarene and Pallotti High Schools. Having achieved a sizable number of participants, the march traveled to [[Said Musa]]'s home in the City for an hour (ignoring Police attempts to disperse them) and then marching to and blocking the Belcan Bridge, one of the City's main arteries. Union leaders and Opposition politicians joined them thereafter and police and crowd engaged in a standoff with occasional outbursts and usual elements of protesting until nightfall, when a few city residents came out and began [[burning tires]] on the bridge. The crowd then began to disperse, some chanting "[[Albert, Belize|Albert Street]]", the main commercial center of Belize City.

What happened next was an hour to 90 minutes of indiscriminate looting in the downtown area, particularly on King, Bishop, Church, Albert and Regent Streets, but extending as well to the Pound Yard Bridge and Vernon Street. Police failed to restore calm before damage amounting to more than a million dollars occurred.

Fingers flew all next day, April 21, as the [[People's United Party|Government]], [[United Democratic Party (Belize)|Opposition]] and [[National Trade Union Congress of Belize|unions]] made claims, counterclaims and threats. Meanwhile, accused looters were being brought to court and UB student body president Moses Sulph charged for leading the previous day's strike. Another tense moment came on the afternoon of April 21 as reports of Sulph's arraignment (he was actually arraigned April 22) brought out hundreds to the Queen and North Front Street areas for a few hours.

On Monday, April 25, plans were announced by public servants and teachers to strike, but these were called off by the end of the week after limited participation. One last tense moment came in Belmopan near the end of April when Opposition rep Patrick Faber was roughed up while attending a meeting of the Prime Minister and UB students there.