Venus Store was probably hardest hit by the looting that ensued during the chaos in downtown Belize City on Wednesday night April 20th. Looters mercilessly raided the electronics and entertainment superstore to the tune of more than $100,000 in phones, cameras, jewelry, and electronic accessories. Now with the fear of random crime subsiding, commerce is slowly returning to normal in the downtown area and with it returns a familiar face at the corner of Bishop and Albert Streets. That's right, before you had time to miss them, less than two weeks after they were destroyed, the long serving Venus Store quietly re-opened for business yesterday. The store is still being refitted and renovated but owner Leopold Silva proudly proclaimed that Venus is back.
Leopold Silva,
"It was really huge for us. It was a real big blow for us but we think we'll be able to come back. A lot of people have been expressing their concern, you know when we will be opening and stuff like that. We are already open and like you said many people have already come in and they've been buying from us and we are quite happy for that. Venus is well ahead of schedule. Actually we thought we'd be open in a couple weeks but I think we'll be 100% in less time than that."
Keith Swift,
Is there anything you learnt from what happened?
Leopold Silva,
"Well the one thing I can tell you is you have to secure the place. We were probably overconfidence and now we don't want to be overconfident, we want to be more secure than before."
Keith Swift,
Why reopen?
Leopold Silva,
"Man I love this place man there is no way I would be able…nothing can make me move from here. Nothing can make we move from here. This is where I will be for a long time."
Keith Swift,
Will Venus ever be the same?
Leopold Silva,
"Venus will be better than before; not the same. We will make it better than before. Prettier, better prices, and a wider variety of merchandise."
Silva told us he lost about $100,000 in stolen merchandise and he didn't have insurance. Hofius Store re-opened the Friday after the looting. Gaylord's Store and Miami Fashion hope to re-open soon. Though they have insurance, as we indicated earlier this week, it appears they won't get payment for the items that were stolen since, under legal definition, it wasn't looting during a riot. The reason is because government did not officially declare the actions of Wednesday April 20th a riot. For insurance purposes that means what happened was simply burglary, even if it is on a mass scale, and under their policies, policy holders don't get reimbursed for that.
