And the killings resulting from those marijuana turf wars are one of the main drivers of murders in the city. That figure for city murders remained the same last year - even as murders everywhere else went down.
The overall figures saw a sharp decrease in homicides nationally, but no change in the city between 2019 and 2020; we asked the COMPOL about it:
Jules Vasquez "But if we look at this next table, we can see the line in pink at the bottom shows that the murder, the count in Belize City was the same, 47, so while great, murders in so many of the districts went down, particularly I think in the Cayo district, it went from 15 to 7 but what we're looking at here sir is that the gang problem which is what drives those murders in Belize City, is the same. So yes, the numbers are down but it's not the success that you tout it as."
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police "You're saying that gang related crimes were the same? That is not true because most of the murders we had in Belmopan in 2019 were gang related. Most of the murders we had in San Pedro in 2019 were also gang related. So, to say that gang related crime didn't go down is totally untrue."
