Twin Towns residents say it’s time to take action against crime

Galvanized by the tragedy that struck the communities of San Ignacio and Santa Elena, residents addressed the media on the scene where Jasmine Lowe’s body was found. They say that it is time for action because too many young girls have been murdered and the crimes remain unsolved.

Miriam Ochaeta, Concerned Citizen

“It was this morning, it was all about Jasmine Lowe and trying to find her alive. But we didn’t find her alive. So now, it is a new question; what are we as a country going to do about this situation because it has gotten out of control. What are we going to do to save our children from the plight that they are experiencing right now? What are we as a people prepared to do about this? What are we going to ask our policy makers to do about this? That is the question right now.”

Kimo Jolly, Concerned Citizen

“I think this murdering our young girls is becoming a national disgrace. I think we as Belizeans should all be embarrassed that as a nation we are killing each other and killing our girls and raping our girls. And I think that when a girl gets raped to kill, it can’t be just one more gial that got hurt and rape. We have to as a nation make all ah we, everybody, has to talk about this and not just brush it under and forget about it. We have to talk about it and we have to find the person. My daughter is friends with her, I am friends with the father, I was friend with the little girl. She was a nice little girl. The first thing I heard was that oh she gone with a man; that’s the first thing everybody quick say. Oh it wasn’t anybody’s fault, she mussi gone with a man. That’s the first thing everybody instead of she is a small little girl, not that kinda girl none at all. All of us that know her know that that’s not the case. And we all started searching and even when I was searching, people were reluctant to help me identify the car. I was going out with a lot of people with pictures of the car. We still don’t have the car. So I’m asking somebody, look t the car—it is something like a white Corolla, something like that—but I’m asking everybody, find the pictures and find out who that person is. Somebody saw something. Every time someone goes missing, the country has to stop work for that day and make that priority. Find that girl. We can’t say oh just one more girl. Because when we say just one more girl, tomorrow will be a next girl—it becomes normal. Oh she must have done something; she got in a taxi. Not everywhere in the world is like that—that if you get in a taxi, you get killed. Me, I grew up here in Belize, I love Belize. I might sound like a gringo, but I grew up here. When I was a child, these things did not happen. Now they are happening and we are doing it to ourselves. We can blame all kinds of things, but we are doing it to ourselves.”

Channel 5