| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | |
is it me, or is Belize just getting more and more violent?Country forums / Central America / Belize | ||
from Channel 7 News: We begin tonight with news of the most daring and most deadly bank robbery in Belize’s modern history. It happened this morning before 9:00 in Spanish Lookout. A KBH security guard was shot and killed, two customers were wounded, and a third customer was robbed when the gang of 5 heavily armed gunmen descended on the Spanish Lookout branch of Scotia Bank. Our team has been on the story since this morning and Keith Swift reports from Spanish Lookout. events are starting to happen more and more outside Belize city. you can read the whole story and eye witness events: http://www.7newsbelize.com/index.php#story1 | ||
I think it has always had these incidents... doesn't seem more violent than any other time in the last 10 years. | 1 | |
i'm not so sure. everyone i've talked to down there thinks crime, murders, etc have gotten much worse the last few years. there have been a series of gas station robberies, this bank job, ex-pat home invasions, along with the gang violence in belize and cayo. from what i've seen the last 3 years down there, it's getting much more violent. criminals are getting more brazen, crimes are happening with more frequency during the day. hey. look at what happened last week in belize on Front street with the big shoot out, 4 people shot ... 2 more murders on the weekend and another shooting on central american blvd... well. here you go. Belize’s murder rate averaged much less (48 victims a year) between 1993 and 2000 http://www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id=6516 so. at least, murder rates have doubled from 10 years ago... i'm sure that violent crimes have also seen higher rates than 10 years ago. | 2 | |
One can argue about the reliability of the statistics, and if crimes are reported or not, but police statistics show that serious crime in Belize is down in recent years. For example, major crime (homicides, rapes, burglaries, etc.) in the first six months of 2008 were down 9% from the same period in 2007. I haven't seen complete stats for 2009. Based on anecdotal evidence, though, many Belizeans seem to feel that crime is up, especially in Belize City but also in some other areas such as San Pedro. --Lan Sluder | 3 | |
Belize has been a simmering powder keg for years. I'm not at all surprised that crime and instability have reached such levels. It's a horribly mismanaged country on the verge of being a failed state. | 4 | |
number of murders in belize 2000 42 those numbers were taken from a belize gov't document. murders are way up in the last 10 years. but incidents of rape, burglaries and thefts are down? | 5 | |
wow. another one.. http://www.7newsbelize.com/index.php#story1 And while the entire nation remains collectively stunned at the ruthlessness of that bank robbery, the armed gunmen are sustaining their campaign of terror. Today armed robbers pulled off another broad daylight heist at a major location in Belize City. It occurred at around 3:30 this afternoon at the Courts Belize Main Store at mile one and a half on the Northern Highway. The robbers – one of whom was armed - put a gun to the head of the cashier - and there are some reports that she was briefly held hostage. Additional unconfirmed reports are that they also robbed customers. Courts did not have comment. Police Press Officer Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood told us how it unfolded. i would definitely like to see the homicide count for the first 3 months of 2010.... | 6 | |
It's not just you. Belize is just one of many countries who receive deportations from the US - unfortunately, this is often after receiving gang training in LA or some other city. | 7 | |
but what about the BDF? what are they doing about things? or the police? | 8 | |
The country is BEYOND corrupt. And it's only going to continue to implode. The worst thing that ever happened to Belize was when they ceased to be a British territory, sorry to say. | 9 | |
Did I read this correctly? Liz and Alan are blaming the US for the high crime rates in other countries, because the US deports criminals back to their home countries? That's laughable. | 10 | |
I didn't blame anyone. I am stating a fact. The U.S. has a special program to target gang members for deportation whether or not they are suspected of any crime. Some of these people were brought illegally to the US at a VERY young age. Some are hardened criminals already and others become more hardened when sent back to a country they have never known. You can laugh if you want, but it isn't rocket science. It even happened to Belize Prime Minister's son who had left Belize when he was 13. link More on the issue the article states: "U.S. deportation policies aggressively send undocumented gang members back to their home countries in Central America. They export U.S. gang culture and hardened criminals to countries whose internal security forces are ill-equipped to deal with the new threat. The street gangs have rapidly grown beyond being just a neighborhood problem to presenting a real national security threat in these countries." It is a complex issue with no easy answers. | 11 | |
US deportation definitely had a strong hand in the start of the Mara Salvatruches, who are by far the most dominant gang in El Salvador and now have dominant presence in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The organization was essentially founded by its leader while he was doing time in Pelican Bay, and knew he was going to be deported at the end of his prison term. He apparently laid the groundwork to the organization from his prison cell. But what lizandalan don't get or didn't clearly point out is that there is NO US gang culture. Gangs exist in EVERY civilized country in the world. Criminal enterprise tends to steer toward organization and feeds on disenchanted or youths who have no sense of hope or future OTHER than being in a gang. This is not something that exists only in the US, not by a longshot. The other part of the equation is the utter lack of law enforcement in the countries where this kind of gang activity breeds. It's definitely complicated, that's for sure. | 12 | |
I might be one of the few who live here to respond to this posting. Crime in Belize City has gotten worse and more brazen since the recession and many of the perpetrators are people deported from the US, as they should be. Belize would do the same with a US citizen convicted of a violent crime. But we are wholly unprepared to deal with these sociopaths returned to our streets, even if rehab were a solution or option. Good Belize people are concerned and pushing for measures to ensure better security. That being said, I live here (in both Belize City and in Placencia), travel around freely and am in the tourims biz, and book hundreds of visitors into the country each year, all of them report feeling a very comfortable degree of personal safety and none of whom have been affected by crime. We are a small country trying to grapple with issues other countries with more resources do not yet have a formula with which to solve. But we keep trying. Stay out of Belize City or use ground transport while traveling around in the city. | 13 | |
the news in the last few days is littered with shootings, murders and ... bus robberies with guns and grenades ?? you have to be kidding me that anyone can feel safe down there. especially considering the rampant corruption on all levels... Ervin "Beans" James Gunned Down in Ross Penn Road Attack A Second Reneau Brother Gunned Down 3 Minors Shot on West Canal Argument Results in Shooting Outside Kevin's Bar Bus Passengers Kill Grenade Bandit Gunmen Execute Car Dealer Kashif Jeffries 5 Inmates Escape from Central Prison 16 year old Raheem Velasquez Gunned Down in Roaring Creek Camalote Villager Killed in San Pedro Robbery Attempt Fatal Accident on Lemonal Road 3 Injured in Weekend Shootings Ernie Miranda Charged for Chon Saan Robbery Attempt Teenager Charged for Attempted Robbery at Accents | 14 | |