Riding out Mayhem: American Crocodile Education Sanctuary, Belize

Riding out Mayhem: American Crocodile Education Sanctuary, Belize

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.

ACES no longer exists. While Vince and I were on Ambergris Caye rescuing three problematic crocodiles for the Belize Forest Department, two children went missing from a village near Punta Gorda. The local Maya villagers believed that Vince and I fed the missing children to the crocs. We were not even there, as I stated, but were on Ambergris Caye.

As a lynch mob, the villagers burnt ACES / American Crocodile Education Sanctuary to the ground. The status of the crocodiles is unknown because the fire is so hot the Belize Defense Forces cannot get to the property. None has been arrested. Vince and Cherie are now homeless and do not have anything to their name. Everything was lost. Our lives have been threaten if we return to Punta Gorda. We do not even know if our dogs survived.

We are not sure how to handle the situation, but the villagers and the country of Belize need to be held accountable. Which the Roses have accomplished by taking Legal Action Against the Country of Belize in the Supreme Court Case they have filed in Belize Court.

ACES / American Crocodile Education Sanctuary are assisting and promoting crocodile research all over the country.  Grants and funding over 28,000 USD during 2011 have kept the ACES program alive and growing.  Because Vince and Cherie's live off of income from rental properties, all of these funds have gone directly into crocodile conservation.  The Roses remain firmly committed to their work.

Now that is the end of that story now the truth about this situation.

My name is James Fredrick Jensen I am a Canadian and lived in Belize. Having owned successful Business’s in Belize I was I was first Introduced to Vince and Cherie Chenot Rose by the publisher of the San Pedro Sun Newspaper Tamara Sniffen. Tamara read the final part of my wife Jan’s service after her death in San Pedro Belize. I can only say meeting Vince and Cherie Rose and visiting ACES / American Crocodile Education Sanctuary was a mistake in my life.

Since that time I have been attempting to collect monies owned to me by the Roses. The fire and burning of the ACES / American Crocodile Education Sanctuary was a direct result of the Roses failure to respect the Mayan Community in which they lived.

The Classic Maya believed that an earth monster or primordial Crocodile floated in the ocean of the Underworld. He carried the Earth on his back, nourishing and protecting all life. Thus, Crocodile supplies humanity with the underlying primal feeling of our connection to nature and Mother Earth. The glyph itself represents a Waterlily, a symbol of beauty, abundance and growth, and the possibility of ascension out of the primordial soup of creation.

The Roses kept Crocodiles at there Sanctuary in Punta Gorda, in pen’s which to the Mayan Community showed disrespect for a creature the Mayans, felt the Crocodiles held at the Rose’s sanctuary were held back from the Mayan world.

The second problem that perhaps invoked this claimed mob attach was that two young children went missing in the area of ACES / American Crocodile Education Sanctuary. These factors lead to what has been claimed by Vince and Cherie Rose as a mob. Consider the cultural issues and two missing Mayan Children.

Then again another question about the Roses they were gone leaving Crocodile’s in pens without protection.

Posted via email from takenwomen's posterous