Today's press encounter allowed us to ask the Police Commissioner about the international press reports which indicate that the governments of Honduras and El Salvador have launched major gang crackdowns.
International reports say that the Honduran Government announced on Saturday that it would suspend some constitutional rights in areas of 2 main cities: Tegucigalpa, and the northern city of San Pedro Sula, which will be placed under a national security emergency, their country's version of those States of Emergency that have been implemented in Belize.
Also, several thousand troops have already been amassed in the Salvadoran Municipality of Soyapango for a massive gang crackdown in that country's third most populated area.
So, since Honduras and Salvador are close neighbors to Belize, we asked the Commissioner if he and his team are concerned about an influx of Honduran refugees and potential gang members of the MS-13 gang. Here's what he had to say:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I saw where Honduras is suspending certain provisions of their constitution and it has to do with fundamental rights and freedom, which means that they are about to invoke a state of emergency and from what I have been seeing on the international news, particularly coming out of Central America, is that they are going to do similar to what is being done in [El] Salvador, relating to the crackdown on gangs. I have heard likewise from a few counterparts in Guatemala that they are also contemplating the same. Certainly, Belize is right next door to Guatemala, not too far from Honduras, next door through the maritime domain and [El] Salvador is just an hour away, likewise. And so, as a nation, we have to look at what is happening around us very seriously and make sure we put things in place that is not going to have these gang members that may want to flee those jurisdictions see us as a safe haven. And with that, I can say that we monitoring our local gangs very closely and as much as we are working with them through the multi-sectoral approach and the LIU, if it is that we should find that despite the efforts that we are doing through the multi-sectoral [approach] and the LIU, the propensity for violence among these gang members does not decrease, then we will have to look at draconian measures as well. We are hoping that we don't have to get there, but as a department and a country, the government has a responsibility to ensure it safeguards the masses and we cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage or imprisoned by a few persons who just don't want to behave themselves. So, it's something that we are monitoring very closely and the minute we see that things are not going the way it should, then who needs to be lockdown will be lockdown."
