Emergency Neighborhood Watch Meeting

Hon. Manuel Heredia addressed neighborhood watch presidents

Presidents of all the different neighborhood watches on the island sat down at an emergency meeting with Area Representative and Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation and Mayor Elsa Paz yesterday, March 17, to tackle the main issue that is affecting our island at the moment – Crime. A recent crime spree on the island has residents on alert and many neighborhoods in fear. The emergency meeting was called in order to come up with an agenda of important issues of which to present to the Minister of Defense and National Security. Hon. Heredia is to present these issues to his colleagues in Government and the Minister of National Security who will sit down on a private meeting along with all the neighborhood watch presidents that is scheduled to take place next week. Issues on the agenda included: improving the lack of resources of the San Pedro Police Department, a security and patrol plan for the upcoming Easter break, Boosting Belize Defense Force (BDG) personnel on the island, private and professional training for private security officers and monitoring of arrivals at the local water taxi terminals. (More on this in next week’s issue of Ambergris Today Newspaper)

New Neighborhood Watch Meeting

The general public, in particular the residents of the San Pablo and San Marcos Areas, are invited to a Neighborhood Watch meeting tonight, Tuesday, October 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Caribbean Villas. The meeting is in response of the increased crime activity in the area and residents taking action to prevent these crimes from taking place. Please make an extra effort to attend.

Caye Caulker Marches Against Crime

In response to the elevated crime and the recent murder of Lurline Young, the villagers of Caye Caulker participated in a "March Against Crime" that was spearheaded by the Caye Caulker Neighborhood Watch.

The C.C.N.W.P.L has appealed to Hon. Manuel Heredia – Area Representative for Caye Caulker and San Pedro – Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture; The Belize Tourism Board; the Commissioner of the Police Department – Crispin Jefferies for a full immediate replacement of all members of the Caye Caulker Police Department as they state that “their current Police Department is the worst contingent ever in the history of Caye Caulker. This must be done to safeguard the interests of Caye Caulker’s tourist industry.”

Their message during the protest was to stop the violence, bring justice to the most recent crimes and to make the island a safer place.