BDF Troops Flood Belize City to Stem Violence

On Monday, Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa, confirmed that Belize City residents will witness an increase in Belize Defense Force personnel across the Old Capital. This is being done to quell the spate of violence that has affected citizens over the last couple of weeks. News Five took our cameras to the streets where we observed BDF personnel, alongside police officers, stationed in various locations across the city. We spoke with Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of National Defense, Retired Major Francis Usher about the BDF’s role in these operations.

 

On the Phone: Ret. Major Francis Usher, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of National Defense

“So the BDF is playing a supporting role in the police-led operations to minimize crime in Belize City. It is a whole of government effort. Crime is everyone’s problem. So we are doing our part to bolster their forces and ensure we can lower crime in the city. We have given specific ROE and operational orders to our soldiers. As I mentioned, it is a police-led initiative. The specifics of the rules of engagement and the specifics of the operational order, for security reasons, I can’t specifically divulge those. But we have given specific instructions as it relates to that.”

 

Paul Lopez

“Where are they deployed in the city?”

 

On the Phone: Ret. Major Francis Usher

“So, they are deployed specifically in the hot spots as we would refer to them. But as I mentioned it is a police-led initiative, so we have a deployment plan as outlined in our operational briefings we have had with the police department. They are not set locations. We have a strategy of how we are deploying and move throughout the city.”

 

Paul Lopez

“How long will this deployment last?”

 

On the Phone: Ret. Major Francis Usher

“We don’t have set time frame, I can confirm it is not permanent. It is a temporary deployment. However, we do have some milestones we need to hit in terms of lowering the crime. But in terms of a time frame, for security purposes I don’t want to say it is this amount of time. We have milestones to hit and once we have hit those and lower crime to a sustainable level we will start the immediate drawback of troops in the streets.”