Punta Artist Hubee Apologizes After Domestic Violence Incident; Victim withdraws charges – Love FM Belize News & Music Power

Since Monday, our newsroom has been closely following the story of accused Punta artist Huston Alvarez Jr., better known as Hubee. Yesterday he publicly apologized following an incident on Thursday, September 26, involving his girlfriend at his home in Dangriga Town. On Tuesday, Alvarez was arraigned in the Dangriga District Court, where he pleaded not guilty and was offered bail of three thousand dollars. Our newsroom was informed today that the abused victim has since withdrawn the charges. Love News spoke to Child Development Foundation founder and lawyer Diana Shaw, who says there is a deeper story behind domestic violence.

Diana Shaw, CDF founder, lawyer: “Many people are unkind to survivors of domestic violence. We've been doing this work for 24 years now and in the 24 years I've been doing it, there's almost never been an incident where people have been very respectful or supportive of someone who said they were a victim of domestic violence, especially when This is someone who has a high level of popularity. The public usually has its own opinion about the person. What people don't understand is that what they see in terms of someone's public persona may not be their character when they are private. Many people who give off the character of being upstanding and even calm in private are not like that and have really bad character traits, or respond poorly to anger, or are possibly controlling, and these things lead to domestic violence. I would say that in Belize too, a lot of the victim blaming actually comes from other women, which is pretty sad because some of these women may also be victims of domestic violence themselves, but they come out and publicly humiliate someone else who is a victim of domestic violence Going out to seek help because it shows that they are not paying attention to the problem they are facing. Sometimes they feel guilty for not taking steps to end a relationship, and instead of acting on it when they try to improve their lives, they usually take it out on the victims through victim blaming. But it is something that is very worrying because it means that people dealing with the extreme trauma of domestic violence also have to think about when they get out that they will not receive support, that they will be blamed , that they are not to be believed and that it can sometimes be more difficult for them to make the decision to get out and seek help. Unfortunately, domestic violence is a cycle. Many women do not recognize or pay attention to the signs of domestic violence in their relationship. Sometimes they feel like their partner's behavior is part of the person's personality, or they feel like it's normal, perhaps something they've experienced in other relationships or even something they grew up with the feeling that anger is normal and we get a lot of it even from violent men who apologize after committing violent acts, try to make up for it by buying gifts, promise that they will never do it again, that they will change and sometimes the people they are in a relationship with will feel like it's okay to try again. This person will change without realizing that this person is not actively taking steps to own up to their wrongdoing by holding themselves accountable, getting counseling, and accepting the situation they are in caused and that will change don't change either. As long as they're okay with just saying they're sorry and given another chance, they'll keep doing it because they don't feel like they're being held accountable.”

Despite the withdrawal of the charges, many believe that this cannot simply be swept under the rug and the Punta Artist must be held accountable.