Belizeans onboard Playa del Carmen Bus got jacked in Mexico
marcelino miranda
Because of the volume of news on Tuesday night, we held back the story of three Belizeans who were onboard a bus heading back from Playa Del Carmen to neighboring Chetumal on Tuesday night when their trip turned into a nightmare as two masked gunmen boarded the vehicle. All the passengers on the bus were held up and robbed of their belongings. Nicholas Pollard Junior was held at gunpoint and was knife with a knife to his throat while the robbers took all his cash and valuables. The news of the robbery is sounding alarm to Belizeans, who travel through Mexico to the United States because it is more affordable. But according to Marcelino Miranda, the Public Relations Officer for the Mexican Embassy in Belize, the incident is being investigated and security measures are being tightened.
Marcelino Miranda, Public Relations Officer, Embassy of Mexico
“Obviously the investigation by local authorities, especially the police, is going on at the moment. But at the same time I have to announce that local police and federal police in Mexico, they have tightened security obviously because normally there’s very tight security for tourists travelling in Quintana Roo. The case is going to be taken to the Council of Security that normally meets every month in Quintana Roo. At the time, Belizeans who are visiting Quintana Roo, they shouldn’t worry because this is an isolated case. Obviously, it’s a concern for the Embassy of Mexico and the government of Mexico that this happened and obviously we are deeply concerned and we regret that that happened to Belizean citizens but at the same time, this is an isolated case and we need to put it in perspective. Quintana Roo is one of the safest states for tourists in Mexico. Basically, there’s thousands of tourists travelling in Quintana Roo and the cases of robberies and all those kinds of things is small in terms of percentage compared to the rest of the country. So you shouldn’t worry, Belizeans are safe in Quintana Roo, you can continue to travel but obviously, for the Mexican authorities, this is a case which they are investigating because those robberies of buses, they haven’t happened for ages; so this isn’t normal. Obviously they are following the normal investigation and at the same time this is a period of bank holidays in Mexico. Normally the police they tighten the security, they have a special program for security at this time.”
No matter how he spins this, the reality is that the crime situation in Mexico has impacted their tourist industry & the traveling public is vulnerable. As inconvenient as it may be at times, travelers checks can cut down on some of the loss but nothing will insulate anyone from the violence that has become commonplace in too many of out countries. We are all grateful we are not hearing another story about mass murder this time.
We stopped going to Mexico City for this same reason, Mexico on a whole is out of control.
People, it is time to pay the price, travel in style to your destination, because the last thing a Belize woman wants to do is to become a victim of one of those loco Mexican criminals.
All those Caribbean countries are plague by the same sickness, soon no one will go back there.
this guy is full of dudu mexico is not safe to travel not now and i blame 50percent of the crime in belize on the mexican drug problem it is moving into belize in a big way and all these guns are coming from mexico the zetas gang has moved into belize already with their drugs no one has talked about this but what is the gov. doing about the border they need to tighten up security at the border big time all the drugs and guns are coming through there i bet all the police there are already involved so come on gov do your job again. but what is the mexican gov.gonna do to give back these people their money if i was one id sue the mexican gov for my money and possesions back and for the trauma.
This is not an isolated incident. Mu sister was on a bus heading to can cun that same night n that bus was also held up. Some men in a pick up truck drove up on the crime in progress n a big shoot out ensued. She was travelling with her two young kids n had to hit the ground n lay on top of her kids fearing for their lives. The mask gunmen got off the bus to fire at the good Samaritans n that gave the bus driver an opportunity to vspeed away. No one was hurt but she said she heard a passenger was pulled off the bus by the robbers. I would advise any belizeans, or anyone for that matter, to do any travelling during the day time. The Mexican roads r dangerous at night, n they r targeting tourists n foreigners.
Maybe is the belize government stop acting like PARASITES-and stop adding excessive tax on air plane tickets,belizeans will fly directly from belize to the US instead of goin to CANCUN to take the plane to the US.800.00 US from belize to the US,160.00US from CANCUN to the US.see the difference?so we belizeans wont be in any danger by goin through MEXICO.
Just going to throw this out there, could this be a case of conspiracy by the air travel industry in Belize to put fear into Belizeans from going through Mexico for their travel to the USA after all this cuts into their revenue, I understand a while back that there was a delegation from Belize that traveled to Mexico trying to encourage them to raise the cost to travel through there, cannot be overlooked after all there are some pretty dirty operations that goes on in Belize, things like one beer manufacturer breaking the bottles of another in order to run them out of business.
PAY A LITTLE MORE AND YOU WILL ARRIVE SAFELY.DON’T BE A CHEAPY , THATS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU…BUT THEN AGAIN THIS SHOULD’NT BE HAPPENING.
Why only name one of the Belizean passengers that was robbed? …….
Belizeans…. belizeans….. stop looking at the piece of straw in your neighbour’s eyes and LOOK AT THE 2X4 piece of lumber in your eyes…..
Derealist and edith….. should we also ask tourists to keep out of belize because so many of them have been mugged, raped and even murdered…. in a country of about 200,000???
Please turn your “complain about everything” switch into OFF position…. statistically we are in Much greater danger in Belize than in Mexico!!!! Listern to your news and COMPARE NUMBERS!!!
Do you know how many tourists visit Mexico or Quintana Roo alone?? Riviera Maya alone …More than 20x the total population of Belize….. work out the numbers……
Mexico has always been dangerous to travel through. In the past, when travelling through by road, the “Officials” (robbers) at every checkpoint demanded payment( “Mordida”); which they classified as custom duty—-but of course we all know where it went. And now the younger generation of “robbers”, have taken this very same form of stealing to another level; using guns to get it.
The whole of Latin America especially the countries bordering Belize are experiencing these problems of jacking, murder, rapes, drug smuggling, which are currently plaguing us. It seems to be heightened in Belize only because we know each other families, and the victims are friends, or friends of friends, so it seems close to us.
The US homeland security has been issuing warnings about travelling in Mexico for several months. Violence in Mexico has been spiralling out of control for sometime, and Calderon has come under fierce criticisms for not appearing to be able to control the problem. Our PM has the same problem with killings allegedly linked to drugs (94 so far this year), as Calderon has with the Cartel (killing about 28,000 people in the past four years). So when Calderon spent almost $40million on the celebrations last week he was slated for it, as it was generally felt that he should have been spending this money on security. If these countries surrounding us are all experiencing this high rates rate, it is probable that it will spill over into our country. How the PM will address this problem Belize is difficult to say, but he will need to pour all the resources available to him with the support of all the communities.
Belizeans should be informed of all the news in our regional countries, as I think it will be quite useful. Lets have a little less sensationalism journalism. Belizeans be observant, and safe in beautiful Mexico just as you’d be here in Belize.
Roska just in case u can’t read I said “I would advise any belizean, or anyone for that matter, to do their travelling in the day time”. I would never say not to go somewhere, look at our crime situation. I’m not stupid, crime is everywhere but that doesn’t mean u can’t b careful. While travelling in the daytime won’t ensure 100% safety, it does lessen the danger!
Please always bear in mind that Mexico is one of the most populated country in the world and no matter how hard they try to control the crimes, it will always be an issue. It is sad that these things happen to some of us Belizean. Here in Belize, we all know that even the Mexican authorities at times try to take advantage of us Belizean when we are only visiting Chetumal. That is something that the Mexican Embassy should also look into.
@ Rod….Aaah so that is where all the guns/drugs are comming from, I was wondering why it seemed everyone is carrying guns now for doing crimes in Belize. Lucky for these people they escaped with their lives.
I travel a lot to the united states, i use to travel belize-united states…..but recently i have been traveling cancun-united states….a ticket from belize would cost you $850.00 round trip while a round trip from cancun-united states will cost you 290.00 becuz thats what i pay at times…the most i pay is 340.00..and to be very honest with you its a huge difference in price. So i would advise do your traveling during the day time, it;s much safer..things haad and you try to stretch your lee dalla every way possible and in every little corner. I think that the government need to do something about the situation to make belizeans start traveling from home