So, in the past 6 days, a total of 6 murders have been recorded in the Belize District, including a triple murder in San Pedro and a double murder in Hattieville.
So far only one person has been arrested and charged for the first murder that occurred last week Friday.
So, after a lull in violence, it appears that homicidal violence is on the rise once again. Perhaps hoping to manifest the opposite, the Minister of Home affairs told us today that it's under control:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"I think that the intensity of the murders is that we used to have were primarily based in Belize city, and were gang related. If you look at the three incident that occurred, one in Belize city the gentleman lost his life as a result of an argument with another individual, and that does not seem gang related, and should not technically speaking result in any retaliation and then, of course, the very unfortunate tragic murder in San Pedro the triple murder that was drug related has been determined to be drug related. And then finally the one in Hattieville was also a very heinous crime that one was determined to be a robbery, and so we do not anticipate that there will be any retaliation. Of course, when you do have gang related murders within Belize city, there tends to be a flare up or a wave of crime that follows that and so we are, of course monitoring all three of these issues are very closely. The police has been very active. And it is hoped that not just we make an arrest in the San Pedro triple a murder but also the one for Hattieville as well. Like I mentioned yesterday there are two suspects that are being sought by the police."
Although every murder cannot be avoided, there's been an increase in criminal activities in the rural communities, particularly robberies. With limited police presence in these areas, that raises public safety concerns, but the Minister of home affairs says that they are working to correct this and increase their policing efforts in rural hotspots:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"What is an indication of is more criminals who are in the rural communities so it's not as though we have criminals from Urban Settings now moving to rural communities to commit crime it is actually homegrown individuals from these communities that are committing these crimes and so the police definitely has to make adjustments. We do have a very large geographical area to cover with just 2300 police officers we do have intake that's going to come out shortly and we have identified that which is why we made those adjustments. We actually sent six of the new recruitments from the last intake to Hattieville because we recognize Hattieville as a hotspot we recognize Dangriga and also Roaring Creek, As three areas outside of Belize City that are hotspot areas that we need to dedicate more of our resources to. So we have been making the adjustments and I think that we will also be making a push to have CCTV cameras in these communities, again have a really large rural community and so more police effort, and more officers on the ground would help in that situation."
