And, Canada, the country that gifted Belize that bridge in 1969 is tonight issuing a warning - not about the danger of the bridge - but about the security situation here in Belize.
On March 28th, the Canadian government updated its travel advisory for Belize warning Canadians to exercise a high degree of caution when traveling to. Belize. They say this is due to the level of crime in the country. It also advises travelers to avoid non-essential travel to the Southside of the city, because of gang and drug related violence.
It also informs them that there is a State of Emergency over certain areas of the Southside and the Cayo District, and points out that other frequent violent incidents include home invasions, muggings, and sexual assault.
Today the Commissioner of Police said he felt the warning was unreasonable, especially since gang related murders and other major crimes have been down.
He feels the Canadian Government may be watching too much of the "Monday Morning Beef":
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Can I blame Jules Vasquez for that? Maybe they listened to Jules on the Beef on Monday and they got scared. I don't know, right? But I have to put one on Jules, right? But I really and truly don't understand why the advisory."
"Belize is still basically a peaceful place. We don't have instances where persons are being killed randomly or persons running loose on the streets and killing people. As we have said and as stats shows that most of the killings we have had this year are domestic related. Where we're seeing that the ex-boyfriend of a woman is killing the current boyfriend. And the second most killing is alcohol related killings. In terms of a gang killing those are down. And so I found it very strange that that advisory came out."
"And I think that when a country declares a state of emergency, it makes the place more safer. It won't make it more dangerous. Let's look at Salvador for instance. With all that is taking place there is tantamount to a state of emergency that has become somewhat of a police state."
"And when you speak to people, tourists who go to Salvador, they will tell you that they feel much safer there now than before, they had this state, what I would refer to as a police state. So the actions that the government took in declaring a state of emergency on south side Belize City does not make south side dangerous. It makes it much safer. and so we do encourage people to traverse the south side and the entire country of Belize, because the country is safe. When we look out district, the performance is exceptional, even though last year was an exceptional year, the other districts are down compared to last year, and not just districts, but even when talk about the region, the southern region is down, the western region is down, the northern region is down and, the only reason Eastern Division is up is because of rural Belize."
"We have had 10 murders in rural Belize this year, and that is what is basically eating at the numbers for Eastern Division, and so I don't think that the notice is a reasonable one, but I guess the Canadians do have their reasons why they did that."
