Crime in Belize

i do hope your good luck, continues.

This is very interesting...sounds identical to the same topic discussion on the Dominican Republic board...We plan to vacation there on a regular basis in a rural community where we bought a house (not in a gated community)  And we will decide later if this is where we want to retire.  But, safety is a big concern...and climate.  We all want the weather, but it seems we must take the good with the bad...?

Brodies,
I too have now been looking at the DR and in a "non-gated expat community" ..can you tell me a little about your experience thus far?
Thanks

Best thing you can do is click on my profile and see all my posts...I usually only chime in if I have something to share or post a question I'm curious about.  I would think the north coast of DR would be a good fit for you too...I love scuba too...and plan to do more when I'm down there!  Best of luck!  Post on the DR board if you want any information!

Thank you !

I have said this before.

I live in San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize. I have lived locally for 30 years and have never felt unsafe.

I don't own a gun and very few of my friends own one. I don't know anybody who actually carries a gun. Most of the police here don't bother to wear their gun.

In the 30 years, I have never been burgled, robbed, mugged, threatened or murdered (joke).

Belize has a high homicide record only because of the gang killings in the south side of Belize City, where stupid young kids like to knock each other off.

Is there crime in Cayo? Yes, of course there is. There is crime everywhere in the world. In Belize, in any part of the country, young women can safely walk the streets on their own and children walk home from school without an escorted.

Yes, we do have some burglaries and even the occasional serious crime but, as I said earlier, I have never felt unsafe in Belize and I have many single women friends who feel the same way.

John Acott

i have  over 25 yrs in belize......from armed robbery  to attempted murder...... to house invasion and thievery.....I've  personally, experienced belize.
and lived to tell  the story.. unlike many other expats/Belizeans....who --R.I.P.
it isn't hard to find the truth...when not, searching the travel brochures  .
the media houses of belize tell the sad stories...daily.

wow...you  certainly have been lucky....
too bad that the cayo has had the most recent influx of gang activity.
ie;- san antonio,cristo rey,bullet tree,esperenza....even north to santa familia...
you seem very uninformed....
i have well armed, secret police freinds, in cayo...that, when at thier homes... they tell a different story.

In contrast to me, and all of my friends in Cayo, you certainly seem to attract the criminal element!

I would love to see some proof of this so-called gang activities in the villages surrounding San Ignacio.  Strange that it is going on in small villages where everybody knows each other, but not in the main towns.

I am the secretary of the PCC and we meet monthly with the police to learn what is going on. You had better copy the police on that gang activity as I don't  think even they are aware of it.

As to your WELL-ARMED, SECRET POLICE FRIENDS - lol. We don't have any secret police in Belize.

There are always those who delight in seeing the negative side of everything and I would think that you have a pretty miserable life,  with few friends. I had a client who was much the same. He continually complained that Belize was a very unfriendly place and nobody liked him.

In truth, you won't find a friendlier place than Belize.

I have no intention of getting in an online argument with you so this is my last word on the matter.

Have a good life, my friend, and if you don't like Belize, THEN MOVE!

good luck with that...
you sound just like ''nikki''...who  didnt stop refuting the crime stats..untill her neck was sliced  and she was left ina pool of her own blood..
.in her  ''safe''...coro home, community.
maybe  the  cnn reporter who was murdered a few weeks  ago.. in cayo...or  the  canadian film producer..murdered a week b4  that.....would  also disagree  with you....but now....they cant...!!
no secret police in belize.....wow...  you  are  really out of the loop....to be  sure.

it is good that you have made that decision....

In this thread on crime in Belize we keep being repeatedly informed of the reporter who was 'Murdered' in Cayo I have one problem with this there has been no PUBLIC report from the autopsy yet saying that they have confirmed the young woman was Murdered. Until the  statement  from the coroner all we know is that the reporter died in the river.
In an  area of the river locals know is fast and with undercurrents. No one has been noticably pressing for the publication of the coroners report, but traditionally until then, news reports used to say either it  is a presumed or alleged Murder. it is Awful for her family however she died but if I were her family I would find it worse not knowing. But the Chicago News media have decided the 'country' of Belize Murdered her and have been running damning stories about Belize ever since.

kudos.....to the  Chicago News media .!!!
jan 19th....post mortem was in....
''The post-mortem was conducted by the doctor and his result was that she died from manual strangulation''
[ http://www.sanpedrosun.com/crime-and-vi … in-belize/ ]

There are other previous threads on this forum that address this issue, that some of you might want to refer to. I believe SPmQQse has posted on this forum in the past under another 'name'.
Since we are quoting statistics, I thought I would include this as a comparison, since the murder rate in Belize is (puportedly) so much higher than anywhere in the US.  This is the city I live in, not really known to be like LA or Chicago or Detroit or NY:
"24 homicides have been reported in the city as of March 22, putting the city on pace for 107 for the year. Based on the 2014 census estimate of 212,247 population, that would represent 50.4 homicides per 100,000 residents. Birmingham had 96 homicides in 2015 and a record low of 62 homicides in 2014. The recent record high was 141 in 1992."
So, that puts the murder rate in one city -  Birmingham AL, USA,  in 2016, ABOVE the murder rate for all of Belize. Sad to say, it is NOT the murder capital of the US, and there are many US cities with higher murder rates. I generally stay out of those areas of Birmingham, like I stay out of particular areas in Belize.
I am careful about who I befriend here, as well as there.  Read the newspapers in Belize online - I do. Learn everything you can. Be careful. Ask questions. Do your due diligence.

your belief may not be correct.
     i find it odd...that  expats   almost always  refur  to some  obscure statistic...from  a  usa city...when talking  about the crime stats  in belize.
usa's crime stats  mean absolutely nothing   in relation to  dead  foreigners and or locals...in belize.
expats seem to hate accepting the reality ,that counters the  ''dream'' they were sold.
rose coloured glasses, i guess,  are difficult to remove.

"Refer" is spelled with an "e" in the second syllable.
The stats for Belize don't carry any more or less weight than anywhere else, including US cities. Just because you can't validate your point with statistics, because the statistics don't concur with your point of view, doesn't negate the fact that the murder rate per 100,000 people, or however you chose to report it, is NOT any higher in Belize than in many American cities. Crime statistics are only 'obscure' when you are ignorant of them.  How you interpret that number, and how you act based on that number is up to you. I, however, don't live my life or make my decisions that way, and I make my own dreams, no one sells them to me.

Hello everyone,

You are most welcomed to share your feedbacks on the topic.

Everyone's views and opinions are based on their personal experience in Belize. Instead of agreeing or disagreeing, we should respect that and share our own experience and avoid any conflict on this thread please.

Thank you in advance,
Have a nice day,
Bhavna

stats are stats anyplace in the world, they apply every place.

Ultimately people will have to decide for themselves.
Unfortunately crime exists everywhere, and as such, people have
to be vigilant, aware and make decisions about where they go, and with whom.
This is applicable to Belize, the US or any other country you live in or travel to.
I have  property in southern Belize, and I know that I shouldn't be walking around downtown PG at 11:00pm at night.  That's just common sense.  Looking at the violence being perpetrated on innocent people in Europe is a reminder to me, that "being safe" is becoming relative vs being an absolute certainty.

belize...a very .dangerous and corrupt place.

shoezcue...
you are correct... there is  very little  left of peace,quiet,calm,,and  safety left on ambergris caye...
might not even be  fit for tourists  these days.

here is a video of a man...who is telling it like it  is.... and  believe me...  he  could be talking about every  town in belize.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsKQC6r … Nkzr0zmDA\

some of you in the expat chat realm...may remember his wife -[R.I.P.]-...she also negated the crime facts .

about 86,000 people visit AC a year and they do return home.  The biggest crime problem will be crimes of opportunity, dont leave stuff laying around.  The only place I would avoid is back alley bars late at night and there are few enough of those.

Here is another obscure statistic related to homicide rates, that oddly enough, is higher than the rate in Belize.
Famous in decades past as a playground for Hollywood stars and other American tourists, Acapulco, a Pacific Coast city of about 700,000 residents, registered 902 homicides last year (2015), according to government statistics. For all of Guerrero, there were 2,106 killings, a 33 percent increase over the previous year.

And virtually none of those homicides had anything to do with tourists

There is no relevance to Belize, only as a comparison to other purportedly 'safer' countries to retire or relocate to - like maybe Syria? Safety is a relative term, and your personal safety is up to you; mostly determined by your choices, your actions  and your decisions.  Of course there are exceptions to that, like everything else in life.

DiCaprio's island doesn't seem to be the big issue, they are being made to jump through hoops to keep within certain environmental standards, and still not approved. From what I have been reading, the larger worry is the Norwegian Cruise Line projects in Harvest Caye and Toledo, that seems to have just skated through the process and are geared to start major developments. I can see where they wouldn't have any problem greasing palms. Dirty. This was one of my few concerns about moving down there...

I always have to laugh when friends tell me about the corruption in Belize.  The only real difference I have noticed in the six years I have lived here is that it takes a LOT more "grease" to get things done in the states.  Of course, you can't just go to the source in the U.S. you have to pay a hefty price for a middle man and because there is "no corruption" in the states, the sophisticated and politically correct title we give these blood suckers is:  "lobbyist".
I prefer the corruption here over what I left behind.