7 News Belize

Was Danny’s Death Preventable/Foretold?
posted (October 1, 2014)

We've shown you the video captured by tourists at Caracol in the terrifying minutes after Special Constable Danny Conorquie was murdered, presumably by Guatemalan cross border bandits. It is an important document – and today, the group of tourists who captured and posted the video sent us an email saying, quote:

"Despite this isolated incident in Caracol, our impression of Belize is very positive. We did not feel unsafe in anyway."

"We thought that the situation was handled very well by the local guides and guards in the area. We know that Mr. Conorquie was doing his job protecting tourists like us. We feel grateful for that. We really hope that the politicians of both countries care enough about their people to resolve this long standing border issue."

But, do they care enough, and has anyone been heeding the many warnings of grave risk to the lives of under equipped security personnel? There is credible reason to doubt that tonight. 7News has received what we believe to be a genuine internal police memorandum sent in January from the officer commanding the Tourism Police Unit ASP Diana Hall. The document is about serious security concerns in Caracol and warns that the TPU officers are quote, "equipped with two shotguns which are no match for our Guatemalan counterparts many of whom also have a military background." She notes that Guatemalans have gone as far as to fetch water from the building that houses the Tourism police.

She states that quote, "I personally believe that these officers are put in a high risk position and although it is an archaeological site, the tourism officers are not the ones who should be manning that site. She prophetically warns, quote, "God forbid that we do not lose one or more of our officers and when we get a public outcry we start to play the blame game as to who is responsible." End quote.

We received the memorandum form an anonymous source late in the day and could not confirm its authenticity before news time, but based on the content and presentation we believe it to be authentic. We will do more of a follow up into it tomorrow.

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