CABLE NEWS NETWORK (Atlanta, Georgia) 08 September 10 Belize mob torches Americans' animal sanctuary but their will survives (Arthur Brice)
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 (16 km) 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."
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/09/07/belize.american.house.torched/index.html?hpt=C2#fbid=QKca5ubaUvb&wom=true

SAN PEDRO DAILY (Belize) 08 September 10 Toledo Alcalde Association To Hold Prayer Rally For Return Of Missing Children
The Toledo Alcalde Association is inviting residents of the Toledo District to be a part of a prayer rally. The event is being held following the disappearance of two children from San Marcus Village eight days ago. Ligorio Coy is the Chairman of the Alcalde Association.
(Ligorio Coy; Chairman, Alcalde Association) I am inviting all the people here in Toledo to join us in prayer at the Central Park here in Punta Gorda tomorrow at eight in the morning. We are very concerned about these children and we can do as much as we can but we believe that if we can join hands and heart together to join the parents of the missing children in prayer. We are asking all people that can make it tomorrow to the Central Park and pray for these children so that we can see them back here in Toledo to their parents safely.
On August 30th nine-year-old Onelia Rash and her brother 11-year-old Benjamin Rash went missing. A number of efforts has been undertaken to find the missing children, all proving fruitless so far.
In related news crocodile experts, Vincent and Cherie Rose have expressed disgust after their property; the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary was burnt down early Sunday morning. The building which was located on the outskirts of Punta Gorda was reportedly torched by a number of Mayan villagers in that area.
The villagers reportedly burnt down the building after they were told by a local physic that the couple knew the whereabouts of the two missing children. In their release the couple explained that they have lost all their belongings. They say they were in San Pedro at the request of the Belize Forest Department rescuing three problematic crocodiles and meeting with top Belizean officials to discuss prospects of creating a sanctuary on Ambergris Caye when they received the news of what had transpired.
The couple plan on taking the Mayan-Belizean community involved in the incident to court.
Love News spoke to officer in charge of the Toledo Formation Senior Superintendent Robert Mariano who told us that the file is being prepared and will be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions for further directions. According to the couple the damage caused to the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary is estimated at one million dollars. The disappearance of the two children has caused tensions to rise as the villagers continue their search for the children.
In related news Punta Gorda Police have arrested and charged forty-two year old Delfina Alvarez Selgado for the offense of Pretends to tell fortune. Selgado who is a housewife of Water Supply Area was arrested yesterday and has appeared in the Punta Gorda Magistrates Court to answer to the charge. She pled not guilty and was offered bail of one thousand five hundred dollars. Her case was adjourned until October 12.
In the meantime the Roses have taken their story to the international press.
http://www.sanpedrodaily.com/

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