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And while yesterday’s murder on Caye Caulker has villagers shocked and frightened –it also has some angry. Villagers say that for some time now - crime has been increasing on the island and the police have done nothing address it. The Caye Caulker branch of the Belize Tourism Industry Association has written Prime Minister Dean Barrow complaining about the spiralling crime problem.

In a letter dated August 2nd – the BTIA’s Branch Chairman Louis Aguilar described the situation as being, “impossible for villagers.” In July, the BTIA membership took up the police’s job and started investigating crimes themselves –looking into everything from robberies, burglaries, and even rape. Aguilar says they gave the information to police on the island but again nothing was done. Aguilar says police on the island have turned a blind eye to crime and today he, speaking on behalf of BTIA members, demanded action and attention.

Louis Aguilar, BTIA’s Branch Chairman – Caye Caulker
“We have been trying to get the government, the Police them to help we out here. From a long crimes are being committed on our island and nobody is doing nothing about it. We call, we knock on every door we could to ask for help and I am still in shock after what happened yesterday because we live in a small community and this lady is a relative of mine.”

Seleny Villanueva-Pott, Neighbourhood Watch
“It is sad to see that the community is shaken up by what occurred last night and it may take something like this for action to be taken now.”

Louis Aguilar,
“I have sent letters and letters and letters and no help. They promise us that they are going to change the police, that they are going to do this and they are going to do that but it is not happening.”

Keith Swift,
“So you are saying that crimes are happening on the island and the police aren’t doing anything about it?”

Louis Aguilar,
“Yeah.”

Seleny Villanueva-Pott,
“A couple months ago we had an incident where they slit another white lady’s throat in the new site area. There are incidents of theft where tourists have been robbed of all their items. There’ve been incidents of where the police know who committed the crime and they would go to the station, they would keep them in there for like about 15 to 20 minutes, a bribe occurs, and then they are out. I mean this is the worse set of officers that we have seen on Caye Caulker and this is at the point where we are at now. It is crazy, it is so crazy and Caye Caulker is such a small community, it can easily be cleaned up. We just need people who are willing to work.”

Louis Aguilar,
“I don’t know what to do. We try bring up the neighbourhood watch but it is very discouraging to be out there in a neighbourhood watch and patrolling and you know that the people that suppose to be help you are not helping you. It is just a fraud. We just need some help, we just need some good police officers right here that do their job. They are being paid to do a job. Just send us somebody who will come clean up our island. That is all, we are not asking for much.”

The Caye Caulker Neighbourhood Watch is planning a protest to voice their dissatisfaction with the lack of police action on the island.