Aces

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Got a panicked call from a friend unable to contact her brother who runs a crocodile (!) rescue in Belize. It seems villagers were up in arms over the disappearance of two local children. The ACES crocodile sanctuary and resort was burned to the ground after a local "psychic" supposedly said the children were fed to crocodiles. Luckily her brother and his wife were somewhere else capturing a crocodile for the Belize Forest Dept. Latest, authorities are not allowing access to whatever's left of the sanctuary, saying it's too dangerous.

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A home video by Cherie at ACES...

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Nine and eleven year old kids still missing
The ongoing search for siblings nine year old Onelia and eleven year old Benjamin Rash who were reported missing on Monday has so far turned up fruitless. The children left their home in San Marcos Village on the morning of August thirty-first along with their father Pedro Rash and proceeded to town with his brother [...]

Social Issues | Channel5Belize.com

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A police escort is arranged in the morning to see if any of the dogs (and crocodiles) are left alive at the sanctuary.

HOME - ACES American Crocodile Education Sanctuary

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This came in this morning...

Morning, I thought yesterday was tough but realize now today is going to be tougher. As all the emails come in with help and prayers I'm having a hard time holding it together. God Bless you all for being there. As I receive info I will post it here with news links. We have lost literally everything of our lives. Not just what we built here the past 6 years, but everything. We are devastated and the villages involved need to be held accountable. Protected crocs were shot in their pens at the sanctuary as well as everything was burnt to the ground including cars. We believe little croc 'Ace' that was to be exported to the Wildlife Discovery Center in Ill. lost his life in the actual fire.

I am trying to answer everyone out there individually, but cannot keep up with how fast prayers and help is coming in.

For today, ACES needs International press coverage. As I post, please forward to everyone you know and to USA local news stations. That would be a huge help for me today as I have a ton of official calls to make.

Thank you again for all the family, friends and strangers that are reaching out to us. This is going to be a long hard process, but we are going to fight and not run away. There will be another ACES somewhere, someday.

Heartbroken, but happy Vince and I are unharmed.

Cherie

It seems the wildlife business is tougher than one might think.

[Blue]

Can't say as I have a very soft spot for crocs, but its good to hear that your friends are OK. The property destruction goes without saying that someone needs to pay the piper! Hope they catch those reponsible.

[bigross86]

It seems villagers were up in arms over the disappearance of two local children. The ACES crocodile sanctuary and resort was burned to the ground after a local "psychic" supposedly said the children were fed to crocodiles.

Some hack psychic spoke and the resort was burned to the ground. It's a crying shame. I've no fondness for crocs, myself, but it upsets me that people are willing to not only cause damage and destruction but are willing to harm other living things just because someone with absolutely no qualifications at all said something.

Every so often I weep for mankind, then realize it's my job to do something about it. The blessing/curse of the younger generation...

[sappersgt]

Can't say as I have a very soft spot for crocs, but its good to hear that your friends are OK. The property destruction goes without saying that someone needs to pay the piper! Hope they catch those reponsible.

Yeah, not on my warm and cuddly list either. It seems they are staying with the editor of the San Pedro Sun (the 4th estate is good for something after all). Accountability? I wouldn't hold my breath. My advice was to GTFO of Punta Gordo, one tentative plan would be possible relocation to Ambergris Caye.

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The San Pedro Sun and Visitor Guide: Crocodile Sanctuary in Belize Destroyed by Mob

Press Release - Amercian Crocodile Education Sanctuary - September 6, 2010 - In the early morning hours of September 5th, a frenzied mob of Mayan-Belizean villagers set fire to the American Crocodile sanctuary that a Colorado,USA couple spent the last six years creating. “We’ve lost everything,” said Cherie Chenot-Rose, co-owner and founder of the American Crocodile Sanctuary for Education (ACES). The sanctuary was located in Punta Gorda, Belize.

The mob was apparently riled in to a frenzy by a Mayan “psychic” who claimed that two children, who have been missing for the last week, had been fed to the crocodiles at the sanctuary. It is alleged that the same group of villagers are responsible for burning other homes in the past several months in the Toledo District, the southern most portion of Belize.

Luckily, Cherie and her husband Vince Rose were in San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye when the mob attacked. At the request of the Belize Forest Department the team were rescuing three problem crocs, and meeting with top Belize tourism officials discussing the prospect of creating an American Crocodile sanctuary on the island.
Reports are that the mob shot and killed some of the 17 crocs held in captivity at the sanctuary. Also destroyed were the Rose’s two story home that included a laboratory and nursery for baby crocs. One baby American Crocodile was to be flown to Chicago to the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, Ill. USA for the first ever animal exchange program between Belize and the USA. Over $2,500 in vet supplies that were recently donated for a new humane society that Cherie, along with other locals were working on in Punta Gorda were also lost. “This one wrongful incident has effected and hurt many innocent people and animals,” added Cherie.

Also destroyed by the fire were two cabañas where visiting guests and research students would stay.

Vince and Cherie are now homeless and do not have anything to their name, said Cherie. “Our lives have been threatened if we return to Punta Gorda,” she said. “We are not sure how to handle the situation, but the villagers and the country of Belize need to be held accountable,” stressed Rose.

Seeking help from the United States Embassy in Belize proved to be fruitless. “They just told us what it will cost to replace our passports,” Vince grumbled.

The two missing children have yet to be found. They were reportedly in Punta Gorda with their father and uncle to sell lime and craboo on Monday and were last seen in Cattle Landing Village a few miles out of town. “We pray these children turn up safely,” said Cherie. The Roses were not connected with the children in any way. The Roses were in San Pedro at the time the children disappeared.

Social media sites including facebook.com and belizeforums.com are buzzing with discussions about the ACES tragedy. “…This is going to be a long hard process, but we are going to fight and not run away. There will be another ACES somewhere … some day.”

Vinnie is on his way to San Pedro after being escorted through two angry mobs. You know, there are some things I just don't miss.

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Some hack psychic spoke and the resort was burned to the ground. It's a crying shame. I've no fondness for crocs, myself, but it upsets me that people are willing to not only cause damage and destruction but are willing to harm other living things just because someone with absolutely no qualifications at all said something.

Every so often I weep for mankind, then realize it's my job to do something about it. The blessing/curse of the younger generation...

Well, I'm guessing this isn't just about crocodiles. There have been other properties burned. It's also about smoldering resentments over land appropriation and unfair treatment going back 400 years. When I was in Belize we found a trooper floating downriver crucified to a door. Hasn't changed so much I guess.

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Link w latest, halfway down the page,
7 News Belize

The BDF is the Belize Defense Force aka the "Bloody Damn Fools". The pictures are interesting. A Black English speaking constable, news is referring to "Mayan-Belizean" Indian villagers whom I 'd guess speak Quiche as a first language. Complaints about lack of police response or even concern. Armed mob coming from more than 100 kms. This is more than a croc problem.

Pictures of fire, mob and bus that was stopped...

[Parihaka]

I spent about three weeks in Belize back in the mid 90's. There was an edginess there that I didn't see in Guatemala or even the Chiapas at the time. Sad for your friends Sapper

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It made CNN...

Belize mob torches Americans' animal sanctuary but their will survives
CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

(CNN) -- An American couple in Belize struggled Tuesday to figure out their future, their dreams literally up in smoke after a mob of indigenous Mayans burned down their animal sanctuary in the belief the foreigners fed two missing children to crocodiles on their property.

Cherie and Vince Rose moved to the tiny Central American nation in 2004 to form a 36-acre sanctuary for two species of endangered crocodiles found in Belize -- the American and Morelet's crocodiles.

Bit by bit, their hope turned into reality. They built a two-story octagonal-shaped house that rested on stilts and reached 30 feet into the air. They constructed two smaller cottages for researchers and students to stay in. They dug out two acres of canals for the crocodiles. They acquired two boats.

They called the place the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary.

Most of it vanished Sunday morning, when a throng of angry villagers from a settlement about 10 miles away torched the buildings on their property. The villagers had been told by a local psychic that the Americans had fed the two missing children to the 17 crocodiles at the sanctuary, police say.

The Roses were rescuing three crocodiles on a distant island at the time, so were not home to ward off the attack -- or possibly suffer a gruesome fate.

"It was like something out of a Frankenstein movie," Cherie Rose said Tuesday. "If we'd been home, they would have killed us. They said they were going to chop us up and feed us to the crocodiles."

National police confirm that the indigenous Maya villagers were acting on the advice of a psychic who said the Roses had something to do with the August 7 disappearance of 9-year-old Benjamin Rash and his 11-year-old sister Onelia.

"They have their own superstitions," deputy police commissioner James Magdaleno said about the Maya, who make up about 10 percent of Belize's population. "Because of their beliefs, they decided to take the law into their own hands."

No arrests have been made, the deputy commissioner told CNN.

"We don't know who burned the house," he said. "That is still under investigation."

Police also questioned Vince Rose about the missing children but no connection was established, Magdaleno said Tuesday.

For the Roses, the drama unfolded in excruciating slow motion from far away.

They traveled August 29 to rescue some crocodiles on Ambergris Caye, a Caribbean Sea island off the northeastern coast of Belize. Their sanctuary in Punta Gorda is on the Caribbean coast in southeastern Belize, more than five hours away by land and airplane.

On Friday, September 3, the couple received phone calls from friends saying that truckloads of people from the village of San Marcos were on their way to the sanctuary to burn it down. The Roses sent their caretaker to the compound, but everyone was gone by the time he got there. The area around the two cottages had been trashed, though.

The Roses got more calls from friends Saturday, again telling them that villagers with shotguns and machetes were on their way to the sanctuary. The caretaker was afraid to got out there, Cherie Rose said, so they called police that night. The police said they couldn't go on the property because the Roses' two mixed-breed dogs were barking and would not allow them to enter, Cherie Rose recounted.

"By 9 a.m. Sunday, we were receiving frantic calls and texts," Cherie Rose said.

By the time police got there, it was too late.

"They told us, 'Oh, we're sorry. Your place is burning to the ground as we speak,' " Cherie Rose said.

Life has been numbingly painful since.

"We're in shock," she said. "We're totally devastated."

Vince Rose still found it difficult to talk about Tuesday, having to stop several times during a phone interview to compose himself.

"They lost everything," deputy commissioner Magdaleno said Tuesday.

Well, maybe not quite everything. Their two dogs -- Rio and Maya -- survived.

So did their spirit. They don't know quite how, but they vow to stay in Belize and start all over.

"We love what we do and the adventure is just incredible," said Cherie Rose, who is 44 and said she has a biology degree from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. "We do more in one day than some people do in a lifetime.

"We are going to stay in Belize. We are going to fight this. I'm not abandoning those crocodiles down there."

Her 48-year-old husband agrees.

"What we created was absolutely beautiful," Vince Rose said. "No, I'm not going. We're not letting them run us out of this country."

The compound is gone, they still have two boats, one SUV is drivable. Relocating to Ambergris Caye could be an option, away somewhat from the mainland and the more hostile elements. For now San Pedro seems like a good (safe) place to be while things cool off. Donations are coming in, we''ll see what Dept of Forestry says. You know, when I first heard this story I was thinking, "Damn, sounds like torches and pitchforks".

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Oracle charged...

Children missing; business burned; local psychic didn