SOE for 3 Belize City Neighborhoods; 45 Persons to be Detained
Another summer, another state of emergency is being declared in Belize City, as feuding gangs go on an unabated rash of deadly shootings. This morning, the Belize Police Department led a joint operation during which twenty-five individuals were detained in three different neighborhoods, including territories that are operated by the George Street, South Side and Taylor’s Alley gangs. The SOE comes hard on the heels of another murder on Wednesday night near Water Lane. Investigators believe that the execution of James Escarpeta was a direct reprisal for the shooting death of Steven Moss a day earlier on Caesar Ridge Road. The Ministry of Home Affairs called a press conference at midday to inform the public that a crackdown is in effect for active members of these warring factions. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
In Belize City this morning, a joint operation between the police department and the military saw the rounding up of roughly two dozen young men from various neighborhoods. It is the latest offensive in an attempt to quell a recent flare up of gang violence. The law enforcement campaign comes in the wake of the Wednesday evening murder of James Escarpeta near Water Lane.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“The decision to institute a state of emergency was made yesterday and three key areas were declared under the state of emergency. Those areas are: the entire area from south of Orange Street, north of Reggae Street, west of Albert Street and east of Central American Boulevard. That captures the George Street and SSG area. The other area is all that area situated north of Orange Street, south of Water Lane, west of Albert Street and east of East Collet Canal which captures the Taylor’s Alley area. The third and final area is all that area of land situated west of Central American Boulevard, south and east of the George Price Highway and north of Faber’s Road. That captures the entire extension area. So those are the areas of operation for the SOE.”
The wave of killings was precipitated by an attack that took place in the George Street area. It extended to Caesar Ridge Road, before making its way to the Taylor’s Alley neighborhood. Home Affairs Minister Kareem Musa isn’t big on states of emergency; nonetheless, it is the third SOE since he took office in 2020.
Kareem Musa
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“The decision that was made, of course, was not an easy one, but it is of paramount importance that we provide safety and security for our law-abiding citizens and based on the intelligence that the police had been gathering, this decision had to be made for a state of emergency within this very limited area.”
According to Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, the predawn operation today was calculated and targeted only the persons suspected of being involved in the ongoing rivalry between the George Street and South Side gangs.
Chester Williams
“The SOE is not a blanket one where we’re just picking up any and anybody from within those particular areas, but we do have a number of persons who are being targeted. And what we are doing is to pick them up based on intelligence and just pluck out those persons who our intelligence is telling us are creating the problems or have the potential of creating problems in those declared areas. We have so far detained a number of [persons], twenty-five persons, thereabout and there are still a few persons we are looking for.”
But why a state of emergency as a means of addressing the open-ended conflict?
Chester Williams
“It is only prudent that when we have a situation where we have done our best to ensure that we try to find ways to work with these different groups like, for example, through the LIU and we have opportunities for them to get into different programs and they refuse to and continue to live a lifestyle where they continue to create fear in the lives of the ordinary people then government does have a responsibility to ensure the safety of the citizenry. And while the SOE may be the measure of last resort, as the minister has said, but sometimes it is the necessary evil that we need to apply to ensure that we get these people to put a pause on their actions.”
During a state of emergency, a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. In this case, for the next thirty days, the rights and freedoms of those persons taken into custody will be suspended, in the first instance.
Kareem Musa
“A state of emergency is not a solution, it is a tool, as the commissioner rightly said, to hit the pause button, to give a cooling off period for warring factions who are unrelenting and who will stop at nothing to continue in their retaliation. So that is all than an SOE is. The primary focus of administration has been: one, let us focus on those individuals because it is estimated that it is close to one thousand individuals, one thousand at-risk youths that are potentially being recruited to be part of gangs, focusing on those individuals and providing social reform services to them if it is that they want to live a positive life.”
So where is the police department in solving the last four homicides in Belize City?
Kareem Musa
“Of the last four murders, I am fairly certain we will have at least two charges, if not three. Along with good police work and aided with the assistance of CCTV cameras, we are able to identify who these individuals are. We are able to make arrests. Those are the primary crime fighting efforts. It is only if those efforts are failing, and it is for a very small group, as the commissioner said, forty-five, and we’re talking about potentially one thousand at-risk youths that are out there. We have to look at crime as a public health crisis.”
Isani Cayetano for News Five.