I am from Brazil and I have been to Bonaire 2 times. Both of them I stayed at VRBO rented houses. Did I feel safe? Yes I did, but my standard is different than most of you guys. Where I live you cannot drive with your windows open (or you risk being shot or stabbed in the face for 5 bucks), you cannot display sunglasses, watches or cellphones while walking at the streets because you become a target and one day or another they will steal it from you. So, said that, going to dive in Bonaire and not to leave anything at the rental truck was pretty easy, I am used to that and I can tolerate that.
Now, being at home and someone break in WHILE YOU ARE THERE WITH YOUR FAMILY that is a different story, this scales to another level, and believe me because I live in that reality, it will get worse. It will not be long until someone is shot, stabbed, raped, etc while people break in to steal valuables. Quite a few number of people do it while under drugs and/or alcohol, add to that the sense of impunity and there is a recipe for something really bad.
The local police knows exactly who the thieves are, believe me, they know their first and last names, their addresses and even have talked to them before. I live in a 2 million people city in Brazil and the local police know most of the offenders (by region), but just like Bonaire they do not do anything.
This will only change when the ones who really make money with tourism (not the poor waitress or the custodian) feel that in their pockets (restaurants, dive shops, hotels, etc.) because they have an active voice at the community and they can drive changes. So unless people really stop going to Bonaire and hurt the overall economy, nothing will happen.
Now a short story to enlighten what I have just said. I live 2 hours away from the coast and there is a remote place by the coast very famous in here due to its landscape, quiet beaches, nice weather, etc. That place had a small local community of maybe 10 to 15 thousand people, but far more than that would visit this place every summer vacations or so. Pick pocketing and stealing unattended items at the beach was something very common and people were used to that. Police and Government never did much to address the root cause of it. About 15 years ago a girl was raped inside a rented house. She was there with her boyfriend, they beat up the guy real bad ,raped her and stole their valuables and the TV. No one did anything. Couple months later an elderly couple was murdered at night and had everything robbed at the rented house their were staying. No one did anything. A month later about 10 people were staying at a house in there and they were made hostages for hours while 4 armed man (with rifles and shotguns) robbed everything and raped 2 of the girls. No one did anything.....and after a while tourists realized things would not get better and people decided not to spend their vacation dollars in there anymore. In less than 3 years both hotels there were closed and up to 80% of their business closed as well. Government decided to intervene, a new police chief took over and investment was made in order to have an efficient policy force. Now, 15 years after that, when you go there there are more police officers than citizens walking around the town, one of the hotels is back and running, but it is not even close as to what it was. The place might fully recover, but for sure it will take them decades....and all of that started with wallets being pick pocketed...
I have to sleep with one eye open where I live, I for sure do not want to do the same while on vacations. Bonaire, it was good to meet you, but I do not have plans to return.
