Crime Affects All of Belize

While many are perhaps focused on the likely economic fallout on the island, following Monday night’s bloodbath, the area representative told News Five that ideally, the safest places in Belize should be the tourist destinations. That notwithstanding, crime and violence remain real issues that the country is grappling with.

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South

Andre Perez

“The safest place to be in this entire country should be any place that is a tourist area, whether it’s San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Hopkins, Placencia, and when there’s a feeling of citizens being under some kind of threat of violence or criminal activities, certainly it is not only an issue for these coastal areas but for, indeed, the entire country. It’s a national issue.  And also, in the tourism industry, all eyes are on it as well.  We are vying right now, especially we’re coming up from the big awards that occurred on Sunday night in Belize City, the BTB Awards which was very successful, being highlighted right now, being recognized worldwide as the place to go to in this country.  Certainly this type of incident we had on Sunday does not help, so we have to go back to the drawing board and say, listen here’s celebrating something and while we’re celebrating something, the news is coming in that something terrible has occurred in San Pedro.  So it is not only an issue here for us, it’s a national issue for sure.”