The Minister of Tourism Honourable Anthony Mahler has clarified that a body found floating near a cruise ship was not a tourist. The body, described as a Hispanic person, was identified by police as 67-year-old Thomas Cabanas, a fisherman of no fixed address. The body was found in the vicinity of the One Man Caye Channel and was retrieved by a rescue boat of cruise ship vessel MV CARNIVAL GLORY.
The tourism minister explained that the body appears to be Belizean, and an investigation is ongoing to determine what took place. A report issued by the Belize Port Authority says that shortly after 7:30AM they received information from the Marine Pilot onboard MV CARNIVAL GLORY about the recovery of a body. According to details, the MV CARNIVAL GLORY was underway to anchor in Belize City to disembark passengers for tours within Belize. MV CARNIVAL GLORY deployed its rescue vessel to recover what appears to have been a person in the water. After the recovery operation, the MV CARNIVAL GLORY, with the lifeboat (rescue boat) in tow, proceeded slowly underway to the cruise ship anchorage in Belize City.
A post-mortem to determine the cause of death has been scheduled. There were no sings of violence, thus foul play is not suspected.