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Santa Cruz, East Of Southeastern Mexico
posted (May 26, 2020)
On Friday we took you on the Commissioner of Police's ride along to the border village of San Victor. It was a well-publicized attempt to curtail cross border contraband at a time when border jumpers risk bringing back much more than the main ingredient for a hangover. But the tour didn't end in San Victor, and after a stern but a friendly warning to the villagers who have gained a reputation as outlaws, the Commissioner, and his squad moved on to Santa Cruz, a village just across the river from Botes, Mexico. Cherisse Halsall reports:

As Belizeans marked more than a month without a positive COVID-19 case, the Commissioner of police lead a group of senior officers on a tour of northern villages on the border with Mexico

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Looking from here we can see the Mexican village of BOTES. So it's a very convenient location for contraband however as you can see we have the presence of the BDF here and we also have a police patrol for this area. Specifically for this area so with that, I believe we have been able to curtail the occurrences of contraband within this Santa Cruz area."

That's a claim backed up by village chairlady Kimberley Medina who says that, ahead of COVID-19, trade in household goods was more visible than large liquor shipments.

Kimberley Medina, ChairLady, Santa Cruz Village
"So that has stopped but we have to keep in mind the villages, we also have some Mexican side boats that are coming in and out. We're trying to control it day by day."

"This isn't a big, just like groceries, people used to come from different villages to buy their groceries so that's all what is being accustomed in this village."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Again there's a number of boats you can see in the corner over there that were being used to run contraband. We have some degree of control over them now. So to some extent, we have disabled the people who were doing the contraband but there's still many blind spots in the area that need to be monitored."

It's a task that can only be accomplished by the armed force's own boat patrols constantly on the water between the villages of Douglas and Blue Creek.

Kimberley Medina, Chairlady, Santa Cruz Village
"Their patrolling, they are going in every single blindspot and they are well informed about the different blind spots so that is contributing a lot to the contraband to be slowing down or to stop eventually, it will stop."

A Pandemic-time hope in conflict with deep rooted community practice.

According to the commissioner a joint police and BDF patrol is expected to remain in the area for quote: "As long as necessary."

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