It has been nine days since the state of emergency was declared in southside Belize City, Roaring Creek, and parts of Camalote. Since then, there has been a relative sense of peace across the Old Capital, except for one murder on Good Friday. Today, we caught up with Police Commissioner Chester Williams, to get an update on the department’s work under the SOE and to get his response to one complaint about police abuse.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“So far I can say that it is going well and as much as the regulations that accompany the declaration do give the police a number of powers, we have not been using those powers. So if you move around the areas that are under a state of emergency you can see that the law abiding citizens still move around freely as the SOE was not intended to disrupt the movement of law abiding people but rather to get a better grip on those gang members who continue to demonstrate that propensity to perpetuate criminal acts. So far I can say we have a total of twenty-three persons detained from Roaring Creek and Camalote and thirty from BElize City.So, we have fifty-three persons currently in prison.”
Paul Lopez
“There are people saying the police are abusing their authority under the SOE, how do you respond?
Chester Williams
“I would respond to that by simply saying, if you as a citizen have seen that, I personally have not seen any. I believe that the police, as much as there is an SOE, the police have not acted in such a way to even enforce some of the provision. For example, under the SOE you would see that there loitering and these sort of things. You still see people the loiter but for they most part they are law abiding people so we try our best not to disrupt that. Some people, no matter what happen they are going to have a negative aversion and say things that are not so, but even if you look at social media, everything that happens out there it is always on social media. Do you see anything out there to the effect that police are abusing their powers?”
Paul Lopez
“We published one story of police pointing a gun at and individual in a bathroom and he was not fully clothed”
Chester Williams
“Was that the day the police were executing the SOE? Come one Mr. Lopez unu have to learn to stop give airtime to stupidity. This is the reason why criminals behave the way they are, because unu give them air time.”
As we said, fifty-two-year-old Belize City resident Carl Uter was murdered three days into the state of emergency. Uter’s murder led many to criticize the effectiveness of the SOE. Well, today we asked ComPol Williams if it is unrealistic to expect that no murders will occur during a state of emergency. Here is what he told us.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“How did you get there? I really and truly can’t understand how one would even reach there. We have seen that since the SOE has been declared the violence in Belize City has subsidized. The violence in the Roaring Creek Camalote areas have subsided. How is it that we are going to say it is not effective? I cannot agree with statement?”
Paul Lopez
“Is it unrealistic to expect that no murders would take place under a state of emergency?
Chester Williams
“Of course Mr. Lopez there are certain things that will not be able to be prevented by the work of the police. You look at a country like Jamaica. Almost the entire Jamaica is under an SOE for the entire year for the past four to five years now and when you look at the number of murders in Jamaica it is still high, but again for us in Belize wherever we have a state of emergency we always see the violence in the declared areas go down. I think that as Belizeans we should be happy to see that that happened.”
We also heard from Home Affairs Minister Kareem Musa about the ongoing state of emergency. When he was in opposition, Musa criticized SOEs as ineffective and a violation of the rights of citizens. That changed when he was elected to office. Musa has led more than one SOEs in response to gang violence in southside Belize City. We asked Minister Musa about his changing views.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“I think in the past and if you could check your records, when it was done in the past it was just done with a broad stroke brush and everybody including working individuals from various areas of Belize City was picked with no sort of investigation being carried out on those individuals before picking them up. The procedure now has been rectified and it is more of a targeted response. The police department knows exactly who the criminals are and we are bringing them to justice. We always have to remember that it is not a black and white situation when we look at crime. We have to utilize all the tools possible and I keep repeating that an SOE is not a solution to the crime problem. It hits the pause button for the police to carry out their investigations and you will see more and more charges, specifically in relation to those murders being committed, be laid.”
Paul Lopez
“On one hand we refer to them as criminals in this context but when we refer to them in the LIU program they are referred to in a different manner.”
Kareem Musa
“Again, and maybe it is not deliberate on your part, you look at things black and white. Do you know how many people from Belize City was detained under the SOE, thirty-five persons? Do you know how many at-risk youths we are dealing with at the LIU, over a thousand at risk youths are part of the various programs we have to offer. So what do you say about those at risk youths who do not want to live a life of crime, do we just abandon them and say you nine hundred and seventy youths, we don’t want anything to do with you, we have to incarcerate you? Absolutely not, there has to be a solution for you. And if you are hell bent on committing crime there is a remedy for you, you will be detained.”
There have been nine additional murders so far in 2024 when compared to the same period in 2023. As we reported, last year saw a decrease in the number of murders recorded compared to previous years. But is 2024 turning out to be the complete opposite? And what is the Commissioner of Police doing about it? Here is what he told us today.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“Yes we are hoping that we will be able to level off by the end of the second quarter. So far for this year, murders are up by nine compared to last year, but when you compare it to previous years we are still down. Last year was a good year. What we will need to do is go to the drawing board, look at the area, and in this case the area of concern is rural Belize District. Nine of the murders in the eastern division occurred in rural Belize. So, we have to find a way that we will be able to address these types of crime. But when we also look at the motive behind these murders, many of them were social settings or the domestic settings, but the gang related murders were still down tremendously and we want to make sure that going further into the year that we can keep it down. When you look at the overall crime outlook, major crime is down by twenty-two percent compared to last year. So as much as last year was a good year, we are still seeing that major crime is down for this year and we want to make sure we continue that trend for the rest of the year.”
And, while the murder count has increased, Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa is celebrating the fact that Belize’s crime rate has improved in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the past, Belize was considered the second and third most dangerous country in the region based on the murder rate. Belize is now number fourteen on that list.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“I believe we are number fourteen now in Latin America and the Caribbean. Last year for the first time we came out of the top ten and were at eleven. But as you would know, under the last administration we were at number three and four on the most dangerous countries in Latin America list. I am thankful that we have moved out of the top ten. We are not at fourteen and I look forward to us going even further down that list.”
As we reported on Wednesday, the twelve men charged with the landing of a drug plane on the Southern Highway in November of 2021 appeared in court. The Head of the Prosecutions Branch, Alifa Elrington called her fifth and sixth witnesses of what will be ten persons called during this juncture of the trial, which is called a voir dire. That process is necessary because before the trial can continue, the senior magistrate who is presiding over the matter needs to be able to determine if there is even a case for the defendants to face if what they are claiming is true. Several of the men are claiming that the police abused them while they were in their custody. The arguments by the prosecution, headed by Elrington and by Attorney Leroy Banner for the defence, are fiery. News Five’s Marion Ali spent most of the day in the courtroom at the Charles Bartlett Hyde building and filed this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The first of two witnesses to take the witness stand on Wednesday was Police Corporal, Jose Uh, who has been with the Belize Police Department for twelve years. Now a corporal of police, he explained that at the time of the interception of the drug plane in November 2021, he was a police constable attached to the Quick Response Unit based in Belmopan. He told the court that at around twelve-thirty on the afternoon of November fifth, 2021, he was at home when he received a call from an Inspector Novelo, who asked him to record a caution statement from thirty-year-old Moises Perez, who was at the time detained at the Police Training Academy. Uh said that he asked Perez if he was giving the statement voluntarily, to which he responded “yes” and that after Perez said he had not eaten all night, he offered him food and water. He said he asked Perez if he knew why he was detained, to which Perz responded, “yes, for illegally bringing down an aeroplane.”
During the cross-examination, Defense Attorney, Leroy Banner challenged Uh strenuously on the way he carried out the process and suggested to Uh that he was aware of police brutality that Perez claims he was subjected to. Banner used a portion of Perez’ caution statement, in which he alleged that before Uh took his statement, a police officer kicked him so hard in his back that the officer’s service gun fell from its holster to the floor. In that statement, Perez also claimed that during his detention, a gun was shoved down his throat, demanding that he tell them quote, “where the things were” referring to drugs. Banner said to Corporal Uh, quote: “You’re aware that you must ask the detainee if he was beaten or if he was promised anything,” to which he responded “Yes.” And Banner contested, quote: yet, you did not say this in your three-page statement and did not tell the magistrate today,” suggesting that he was merely acting as a robot in taking the statement.
Uh repeated that the accused said he was giving the statement voluntarily. Though at one point, Uh admitted that Perez did tell him that an officer had kicked him in his back, and when he was pressed further by Banner on his reaction to this information, Uh said that he informed Inspector Novelo about it. Later on, he said that at no time Perez said he was in pain and that he (Uh) asked Perez if he wanted to see a doctor and he responded “no.” Banner pointed out that this was the first time since the arrests in 2021 that Uh has said this. Uh also told the court that he did not take any further action to find out if Perez was abused because he did not want to put himself further into the investigation. When Banner tried to suggest if it was because of Uh’s laziness that he did not find out if Perez was abused, the prosecutor, Alifa Elrington objected vehemently, arguing that the Defense should not be allowed to cast aspersions on the witness.
The Magistrate asked Banner to reword his question, but he elected to move on. The defense argued that Uh knew that the police had brutalized Perez and by him not doing anything about it essentially made him a part of that action. Furthermore, Banner asked, “how can he (Perez) give a statement voluntarily if he had a gun stuck in his mouth and was kicked in his back. The prosecutor rose to object, arguing that was not a question for the witness to answer. The next witness to be called was Martin Cal, a Justice of the Peace of twenty years who lives in Belmopan. He told the court that Corporal Uh called him on November fifth and asked him to witness the recording of Perez’ statement. He said that before they began to record the statement, he was given about ten minutes to talk in private with Perez and that during that time, he asked him if he was beaten and if he was giving the statement voluntarily.
He said Perez did not indicate to him at any time that he was beaten and he said he was giving the statement freely. He said he also heard when Corporal Uh told Perez that he did not have to give the caution statement and that he decided on his own to do it and that he indicated he preferred if Uh wrote out his statement for him instead of him writing it out himself. Cal aid the officer also gave him food in his presence. When the defense asked for his observations of Perez, he said he appeared to be calm. The case was adjourned until next Monday, April eighth, when Cal is expected to return to court for the completion of his testimony. Marion Ali for News Five.
Residents of the Corozal District are saying goodbye to the Laguna Seca and Pueblo Nuevo ferries and hello to two new bridges. Just before the Easter break, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing opened the Laguna Seca Bridge, which is expected to provide easier access to Sarteneja, Chunox, and other villages in the area. Some minor works are still pending before the bridge is fully completed. The Pueblo Nuevo Bridge is expected to be completed later this year. We spoke with Project Engineer, Michelan Gilharry.
Michelan Gilharry
Michelan Gilharry, Project Engineer “So I got to open the Laguna Seca bridge last week, Wednesday level of meaning that it only has the first layer of DBSD. It takes two. But like I said, the idea was to have it open before the Easter break, right? So we managed to accomplish that. So the commuters have a easier flow of traffic rather than waiting on the ferry. That bridge in length is a hundred meters, excluding the thirty-meter approaches which was done with MSE panels. The height of that bridge is about twelve meters in height. So that’s the description that I would like to give on the bridge. It’s about ninety to ninety-five percent completed. We still remain to do the guardrails and some erosion control features, line marking on the bridge itself. But it’s substantially complete. The second bridge is called Pueblo Nuevo. That’s still under construction at this time. We intend to have that completed by no later than September of this year. Because this project is a design and build project, technically, it has taken like over two and a half years. Because what was focused at the onset of this project was building of a portion of the road that was initially designed. Because of the scope or the nature of this contract, the contractor wasn’t technically obliged to start the bridge at the same time. It was until the design was completed. The design is approved, then they were able to start this bridge and that’s the reason we have a slight delay with respect to the other bridge, because It took us a long time to finalize, fine tune the details of the bridge and the cost, since the contract already had a numeration with it, and we now had to go back and design a bridge based on a figure that was already provided. So it was a challenge, but we anticipate that since the contract is not going to expire until July, the bridge is still done in a timely fashion. Now the one in Pueblo Nuevo, we may need to seek some additional time to have it completed by when I stated in September.”
The installation of the Laguna Seca and Pueblo Nuevo bridges in Corozal allows for easier access to the surrounding areas, providing a more efficient route for more commuters. While the opening of the Laguna Seca Bridge was received positively by residents, some noted that the feeling was bittersweet as they said goodbye to the ferry that has served them for many years. Project Engineer Michelan Gilharry told us what now happens to the ferry.
Michelan Gilharry, Project Engineer
“So the area that the bridge is located is between the Chunox area of the Corozal district. The importance of it is because this acted as a bypass in the sense that you didn’t have to go around through the Progresso village to reach all the way to Sarteneja for the Corozal town area, it’s a shorter route. Yes, we know it’s a bit of a bittersweet moment in that sense with the ferry, but I’m sure that everybody is relieved in a sense that their time is being reduced with respect to the road. They have a free flow and that’s the intention of the project. What the ministry has intention with the ferry, I believe we will try to salvage it and reuse it in other lake locations that it may be needed. So that’s the intention. So we’re still putting it to use.”
The Firearm and Ammunition Control Board has issued a public notice for persons interested in firearm safety instruction licences to send in their applications. It is among the first moves that the board has made since it was formed. Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa says he is in no rush to see the board move any more swiftly, while the gun dealers are asking that the moratorium on the issuance of gun licences be lifted.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“I am not eager or i am not behind this board to be acting any more swift than they actually are. They have been doing an excellent job in terms of necessary firearm reforms that are needed in this country. To me they are taking the right steps and moving in the right direction. So I am not like you looking forward to the day another license is issued. So, we are letting them do their work as they see fit and when that day comes it comes.”
Reporter
“How do you deal with the impatience of the gun dealers?”
Kareem Musa
“I don’t have to deal with that. I don’t care about that.”
Three years after being established, the Ministry of New Growth Industries finally has a budget. And one of the first moves of the ministry will be to hire businesswoman and former politician Nancy Marin as a consultant. As you may be aware, Marin has been spearheading the growth of an ostrich industry in the west. Minister Musa told us more about Marin’s hiring.
Kareem Musa
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“The Ministry of New Growth Industries was initially set up as a sort of vehicle to set up new structures, different types of legislation that may be needed, hand in hand with other ministries like the Ministry of Economic Development, BELTRADE in advancing new industries. This year we have a budget and so we are currently speaking with Ms Nancy Marin to enter into a consultancy to see how it is that we can go from here in setting up the structure. As you know, she is very passionate and very innovative with her ideas. She is an individual who has come up with many types of new industries. So we look forward to working with Ms. Marin as we move forward.”
