Cruise Tourists Attacked in Belize
by Jim Walker of cruiselawnews.com
A couple of days ago, cruiselawnews.com posted an article about cruise passengers who were robbed while visiting the Altun Ha Maya ruins site in Belize. During this incident, two cruise passengers were reportedly robbed of a gold necklace and $450 in cash by two men, one with a machete and one with a handgun.
A local television station said that “the tourism police officers were lax in carrying out their duties. When the last tourist bus left, so did the tourism police, although the site had not been closed.”
But the Ministry of Culture later issued a press release saying “there was adequate police and security presence at the Archeological Site.”
Today, we were notified by a passenger, wishing to stay anonymous, who visited Belize City on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Vision of the Seas, and told us that her husband had been physically assaulted and battered in an apparent robbery attempt on March 8th after their cruise ship docked at the Tourism Village. She indicated that after a ten minute walk from the port on Gabourel Lane, she and her husband ate lunch and began to return to the ship. A local man “came up from behind with a rifle and said he was going to kill us if he did not get my bag.” Here is her account:
“We were victims of an attempted armed robbery on Tuesday, March 8, 2016 near the Museum of Belize after lunch at Senor Coconuts while walking back to port. My husband was hit on the head with the barrel of a rifle and sustained injury to the head (requiring stitches) and bruises on the arm and hand and I also sustained scratches and bruises. Luckily, there was a women nearby who scared him off. The police never arrived until we were at the hospital. We were driven there by a couple in the area. We were treated at the hospital and driven back to port. We were on RC Vision of the Seas.
It is our understanding there is little police presence because they are underfunded and undermanned. This is a very dangerous place filled with crime and cruise ship visitors are not advised of this by the ships. I was really concerned because of all the young college girls on the ship. Do not go out of Tourism Village. The city of Belize is very unsafe.”
I agree with this assesment. I went to Belize in October 2014 and was surprised at how uninviting the entire city looked. We were on a tour and were in relative safety on the bus but the areas we traveled through were awful. I saw nothing that would remotely entice me to ever visit this country again. I was surprised because in the past I had heard it was beautiful. The next day we went to Rotan Honduras and it was the most beautiful place I have ever visited. Even better than Hawaii. I have heard the mainland of Honduras is unsafe and since we did not go there, I can’t advise. Just a little further south is Costa Rica and many, many people have told me it is not only beautiful, it is safe, especially for epats and tourists as that is one of their main incomes, so the Country goes to great expense to protect their visitors. I am looking forward to a trip to Costa Rica.