A brutal machete attack in the quiet community of San Marcos Village has sparked explosive accusations of official influence and a deliberate cover-up, leaving a victim’s family living in daily fear more than a week after the assault. What began as a residential invasion on May 14 has devolved into a clash over conflicting narratives, with the victim’s relatives and local village leadership offering starkly different accounts of how the attack unfolded—and why no suspects have been taken into custody.
Orlando Makin was the primary target of the assault, according to his family, which says a long-running dispute erupted into violence when a group of men forced their way into the Makin family home. In the chaotic confrontation, Orlando was hacked with a machete, and the attackers turned their weapons on Orlando’s mother before fleeing the scene. What has compounded the family’s trauma is the complete lack of law enforcement action in the days since the attack: the suspects remain free in the community, openly carrying machetes in public, and police have yet to make any arrests.
In an exclusive phone interview, Mario Makin, Orlando’s brother, detailed the family’s frustration with the slow-moving investigation. “From the 16th, the police came and they didn’t arrest those guys. They only took my brother to the hospital,” Makin explained. After the attack, Orlando’s mother formally filed a police report and requested court intervention, but law enforcement has not moved forward with apprehending the suspects. “Up to now, the people that did all those and people that did the chopping, they’re still walking free on the road with the machete in their hand. We still see them around, walking with machetes,” Makin said. The family claims one of the main accused attackers has close personal ties to San Marcos’ top village leadership, and that this connection is why authorities have failed to act. The ongoing presence of the suspects has left Orlando’s mother, who stays alone at the family home while her grandchildren attend school, in constant danger. “When I just went to check to the police station again, they told me that they will look into it again, but only like that, they’re saying they’re still investigating,” Makin added.
Attempts to reach San Marcos Chairman Alberto Muku and Village Alcalde Marcos Choc for comment on the accusations went unanswered, as both leaders were unavailable for interviews. But Juan Caal, secretary to the alcalde, offered a counter-narrative that completely contradicts the Makin family’s version of events.
Caal told reporters that on the afternoon of May 14, while village leadership was attending an off-site meeting, authorities received word of an altercation involving two attackers and the chairman’s brother on a residential backstreet. According to Caal’s account, the clash was initiated by the Makin side, with Orlando Makin acting as the initial aggressor who attempted to attack the chairman’s brother. The injuries Orlando sustained, Caal claimed, came during a struggle for control of Makin’s own machete, when Makin accidentally cut himself while the chairman’s brother acted in self-defense. Caal said village police under the alcalde’s command attempted to arrest the attackers immediately, but all suspects managed to escape. Local leadership then called in the Punta Gorda Police Department to take over the investigation and coordinate efforts to apprehend the fugitives. Caal emphasized that both the alcalde and the chairman are committed to upholding equal justice for all residents and have no bias in the case, confirming only that no arrests have been completed to date.
As the competing accounts stand, the Makin family continues to wait for justice, while questions persist about whether political connections are undermining law enforcement efforts in the small rural community. This report is a transcript of a televised evening newscast, with Indigenous Kriol speech transcribed to standard English spelling for accessibility.