Cabinet Condemns Incident at San Ignacio Community Hospital

Earlier today, the Government of Belize issued a press release in which it stated, “the entire Cabinet shares the outrage of the Belizean people at the incident which occurred at the San Ignacio Community Hospital on June first.  Cabinet is grateful that medical practitioners, staff and patients were not harmed by those criminal elements who stormed the facility.  Decisive action has been taken.  Instructions have been issued, firstly, for the escalation of the operation to round up not only those persons who participated in the attack on our medical facility and staff, but all gang elements operating in San Ignacio and Santa Elena.”

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“It’s a regrettable issue.  We wish it did not occurred, but again, the reason why the police did not respond when they were called was because it was a busy night in San Ignacio.  The police had other complaints that they were dealing with and so they could not have responded on time as the hospital requested.  And I do agree with the hospital and I agree with the police as well, I have to strike a balance, but we have to find a solution moving forward to make sure that should there be any recurrence that what took place, or the sequence of events that took place on that night in question does not reoccur.”

 

Reporter

“But ComPol, how many other incidents would there have been that night not to warrant police responding immediately when, in essence, that’s a hostage situation.  If you have doctors under the threat of firearms to say, “Unu need fi save this person life or else unu wahn dead.”

 

Chester Williams

“The police were at a stabbing.  They had a stabbing.  They had, I think a burglary, and there was another issue at a village.  The police only had one vehicle that night that they could have utilized and so that was an issue.”