The decrease in murders has been very tangible int he Belize district where there were no murders between August 27th and September 27th.
One month without murders in Belize district is impressive - especially considering that nationally - Belize saw 13 murders in September of 2022.
That surprising calm came after Orel Leslie was murdered - which is counter intuitive since his gang related killing was expected to trigger a vicious retaliation.
We asked the Commissioner how they averted that crisis:
Jules Vasquez
"That's an extraordinarily long lull and welcome. But what accounts for it for this down turn, It came right after the SOE."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Yes, I myself, brother Nuri, Footy Gongara, brother Sticks - Even when we had the SOE in place, we had conducted a number of intervention session with the guys who were part of the SOE before they came out of prison."
"And when we had the murder of Orel Leslie, again, we sprung into action, we brought in the different factions. We had intervention with them. We spoke to them and let them understand that going out there and retaliate is not going to bring back Orel. It is only going to make matters worse. And I believe that the conversation that we have been having with them is working. It is not to say that we still don't anticipate that they may be retaliation down the road."
"But we try as best as we can to keep in communication with them. We are in constant communication with them and we are seeing now that whenever the different factions would see that something is about to happen or there is some tense rivalry developing between them, they would contact one of us and we would bring them together and we try to quell the issue before it escalates towards a stage where people get killed."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, you had said that you stop mediate. But you are saying now that in fact this success in September and we hope it continues. Is due to your mediation."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well, I had said that before and I have also said thereafter that following the death of Mr. Dawson, I would have to go back and do it and that is what I am doing now along with Brother Nuri and Sticks and Footy Gongora. But I am hoping that we are seeing that Sticks and Footy Gongora are developing very quickly and hopefully soon I will be able to leave that for them to do along with Brother Nuri."
