And we also asked Perez about the latest murder in San Pedro - a municipality that has seen its murder rate drop significantly over the last 4 years. The town's previous murder was over a year ago, but on November 19th, businessman Elvis Polanco was robbed and killed as he was heading home.
But while San Pedro's murder rate is still much lower than it was in previous years, is crime picking back up? We asked the area rep for his thoughts.
Andre Perez, Area Rep, Belize Rural South
"The incident last weekend is very unfortunate, it's sad. We know the family, they are a hardworking family. He leaves behind a 3 year old daughter. That puts the community on a spot that says where is community heading, in what direction. What I can say is this is not our community. This incident does not define what our community is all about in terms of violence, so we need to be clear. It is an isolated case. Nonetheless, we're not going to put a blind eye to it and again its the collaboration between the police department giving every single support about it and as well as the council and the leadership that we keep in touch as to these matters. I think that being a community that is tourist oriented, the nightlife is very much vibrant here. I think this highlights issues about controls. After midnight whenever the people are participating in having alcohol consumption after midnight is never going in a way that's going to be productive. So working along with the liquor license committee is important and this morning we spoke on the local radio TV and we said it clear that for now, we're going to take a little recess and avoid giving those extensions. That's important and working with the police department. What we are hearing is some suspects may have been involved, members of the police department. They are dealing with it. It highlights that this is not Ambergris Caye and we have to be careful that we do not show that image there of violence. It is a safe place and we have controls."
