And from politics to crime stats in the last ten years, violent crime has steadily climbed and slowly spread like vines to nonviolent districts.
One district is Toledo, whose crime rate, while not as high at the Belize District, has seen a major increase over the last decade. But what caused the crime to take root in the southernmost district? We asked activist and PG resident Wil Maheia on his theories. Courtney Menzies has the story.
A little over ten years ago, the countrywide murder rate was 39.86, but in 2020, the number fell dramatically to 24.33.
But while that number fell, alarmingly, the murder rate in the Toledo increased significantly over this decade. In 2010, it was 3.24, but it has since quintupled to 17.71 in 2020.
But what could have caused a once peaceful district and especially the tranquil town of Punta Gorda to run red? We turned to community activist, Wil Maheia, to get some answers.
Like other PG residents, he strongly believes it began when, about ten years ago, the government sent gang members to different parts of the country to de-escalate crime in Belize City.
Wil Maheia - Community Activist, Punta Gorda "I believe it was around that time when the government of Belize decided to send some Belize City gang members to the districts in order to curb crime in the city. I believe a lot of it happened when those guys came and planted roots in our town and in our district and created a new culture and those kids who were influenced at that time have now become young men and I would say that is one of the reasons why those kids today who are doing the killing were influenced by those people who came into town during that time."
Gang activity had become so rampant in Belize City that the former PM, Dean Barrow, flew home early from a Heads of State meeting in St Kitts and Nevis to construct a truce with the gang leaders.
And while this reasoning is not farfetched, it might not be the sole cause of increase in criminal activity. Maheia put forth another theory but like the previous one, it all connects back to the old capital.
Wil Maheia "Also I believe that right now there might be like Belize City there is a connection between Belize City and the districts as the drug trade grows, during those times we're talking about 10 or 20 years ago we use to grow our own weed down here and we never had that Mexican weed. Now the Mexican weed is here in our district and it's controlled by those guys, so recently there was a killing here which I believe would have been linked directly to the fact that Mexican weed had come into this town. Before, we had small growers in the villages who would grow and supply the town but with this new brand of weed coming in and their controlling the streets as they do in Belize City, I would think that would have something to do with it."
But Maheia also puts some blame on the residents for allowing the criminal activity to take root and grow because of their unwillingness to say something when they see something.
Wil Maheia "We can do it if people are serious, first of all not only the government or the authorities, the people. You have people here who have crime stoppers sign on their house, but they are afraid to make a call to the police station to report a crime. You know those signs that says we report crime, they have them on a lot of houses in town but those people will never make a call to report a crime, so I believe that the authorities along with the community have to work together and to enforce the regulation. Whenever you walk into any store in Punta Gorda that is Chinese owned, the first thing the first thing that greats you is alcohol, nothing else, that's the first thing. Now in the developed world, they can't display alcohol like that in a lot of places around the world, you can't have alcohol on display like you do in Belize. So again, our system is so messed up that we don't care about what really is causing this problem."
And while the residents may have some fault in creating a conducive environment for gang activity to prosper, Maheia also blames the law enforcement to helping to foster that environment.
Wil Maheia "This is a small town; everybody knows what's happening except the police. You walk around town and everybody know who did the crime, where the crime was committed except the police. So that in our opinion in this town, in my opinion too have a lot to do with it because in this last murder, there was a teenager, the guy probably weight no more than 120 pounds and took this well-established guy who is a hunter, kidnapped him, drove him almost 5 miles away to murder him. Trust me, one teenager is not capable of doing, there was a bunch of them, but one guy took the rap. We had like a police down here maybe 10-15 years ago and if you come into town and you are not from here and you can't prove what you're doing here, he would put you on the bus and send you back. Those things don't happen again."
Toledo was the only district to have quintupled its murder rate between 2010 and 2020.
