Authorities Warn of Heavy Penalties for Archaeological Vandalism

The Institute of Archaeology is speaking out tonight after graffiti was spotted at Xunantunich. Sadly, this isn’t the first time vandals have targeted Belize’s treasured monuments. Defacing these sites is disrespectful, it’s also a serious crime. We’re talking fines of up to seventy-five thousand dollars or even five years behind bars. Director Dr. Melissa Badillo says these ancient structures are irreplaceable windows into our past, and graffiti causes permanent damage to carvings, buildings, and artifacts. Her message is quite simple: respect the rules, listen to the rangers, and help protect these cultural landmarks so future generations can learn from and enjoy them.

 

Dr. Melissa Badillo,  Director, Institute of Archeology

“It is very disappointing to know that visitors would go to our site and conduct themselves in this type of manner. We are always engaged in educational awareness, whether it’s with schools, with tour guides, with communities, with researchers. And it is really disappointing to see these kinds of actions taken and or post this afternoon was just to remind people that this type of activity is illegal and there are penalties that can be placed upon some person if we can pinpoint or detect who the pers, who the exact person was, who conducted this type of activity, which of course is the unwanted graffiti on these ancient monuments. That said, we do know that there are some challenges when working with the tourism industry. The site is open to anyone to visit. We do have instances where visitors come along with tour guides, and we would hope that the tour guides are assisting us in deterring these types of activities. But, our plate, we are open to discussion on all these matters. We’ve had incidents also where, you know it’s our own Belizeans who do these things. It may be in other instances, not Belizean, who are doing these. And we just wanted to remind everyone that this kind of activity is not encouraged. We don’t want it happening. And to make sure that everybody takes a responsibility when they visit our site. These are sacred spaces. These are our cultural heritage, and we want to make sure that everybody is aware and help us in protecting these features.”