Emergency Meeting as crime wave hits Placencia

This evening in the Placencia peninsula, tourism stakeholders as well as residents are holding an emergency meeting in respect of a crime wave that is striking the village. The Village Council chairman, the acting police commissioner and representatives from the B.T.B. and B.T.I.A. are in attendance as well.  Muggings, robberies and burglaries have become common place. While much of the violence has gone largely unreported, there have been two major cases in recent days that have sent stake holders in emergency mode and precipitated today’s meeting. One week ago, Frank Da Silva the owner of Mangos Restaurant in Placencia ended up in at the K.H.M.H., when he was shot in a robbery at his business establishment. It was the third time he has been targeted. On Sunday night, two vacationing US couples were attacked in a catamaran, SK Abenga, as they passed Pelican Cayes. All four were hospitalized for varying degrees of injuries. One of the women in her sixties was brutally raped and according to one report, help from the police was too late. The four suspects have not been detained.  It is felt that there is inadequate policing in the peninsula where tourism is the main income earner and that the violence, if left unchecked, will have a negative impact on tourism numbers. Only six police officers are in the peninsula and southern communities which have grown significantly to a population of thirty-two thousand.  Word from Placencia is that the BTB has agreed to assist with patrol boats, as a first step in curbing crime. We’ll have more on that emergency meeting in Friday’s newscast.