On a quiet early Sunday morning in Guinea Grass Village, a routine swim turned into a life-or-death struggle that has upended community trust in one of the area’s most beloved local recreation spots. Twenty-nine-year-old Leomar Narvallez became the victim of a sudden crocodile attack in New River Park, a riverside space that for decades has served as a go-to cooling retreat for residents during warm Belizean summers. He has survived the terrifying encounter, but the incident has left the community demanding urgent action to prevent future tragedies.
When reporter Shane Williams visited the site days after the attack, the normally crowded riverbank told the full story of the community’s new fear. On a picture-perfect warm summer afternoon, the calm, cool waters that once drew crowds of swimmers sat completely empty—no families picnicking, no teenagers cooling off, no locals gathering to relax after a week of work. The quiet that now hangs over the park is a direct result of the horror that unfolded here just days earlier.
Narvallez, speaking to reporters by phone from his home after release from the hospital, recounted the split-second shock of the attack. “I went in the river; I was swimming and that when I feel like something grab me in my head,” he said. “And that’s when I feel like it shaking. The crocodile shook my head like two times. So in my mind I just asked what is this, because I never expected that to happen.” Through a desperate fight for his life, Narvallez managed to escape the crocodile’s jaws. He was rushed to Northern Regional Hospital, where clinicians closed his wounds with roughly 28 stitches before clearing him to go home.
The attack was not a completely unforeseen risk, according to Guinea Grass Village Chairman Benito Uk. He revealed that local leaders had already flagged crocodile activity in the area more than a year prior. “Last year, I did a post on my village council page in regards to the crocodile,” Uk explained. “I took a video because the same time we were cleaning early morning we were cleaning there as usual and I saw the crocodile around that area and then I posted that. But usually, our community usually use that for recreation and so forth.” Even with the prior warning, the community continued to rely on the free, accessible riverside spot—until last week’s attack.
Now, Uk says the village is calling on national authorities to act immediately. The incident has left residents not just mourning the loss of their go-to recreation spot, but worried that a lack of intervention could lead to another, deadlier attack. Uk is pushing for the crocodile to be relocated from the area that villagers regularly use for swimming and bathing. “I was expecting that the Department of Environment contact us to see what measures we could take with the community and with them to see what we could do to, I don’t know, to either the crocodile be placed in another area,” he said. “I don’t know what else we could do to not have them around the area where our community go and take a bath there.” For now, the village chairman is urging residents, especially parents, to remain alert and keep unsupervised children away from the river, as the community waits for a response from environmental authorities.
The attack serves as a sobering reminder for communities across the globe that even the most familiar, frequently used bodies of water can hide unexpected dangers. This report from Shane Williams was produced for News Five.