Is Mediation An Answer or Short Term Solution?

Chester Williams

So with all the recent murders due to gang rivalry in Belize City, what is being done? Commissioner of Police Chester Williams was a part of a weekend mediation session with those rivaling groups.  He says gang violence in the city has decreased, but, will it hold? Past gang mediations have resulted in temporary truces, but then eventual flare ups of gun violence once more. Here is what Belize’s top cop had to say about police’s ongoing response to the gang wars in Belize City.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Did have a mediation with the rivaling groups in Belize City, with a view to see how we can ascertain those issues to try to find common ground in the resolution of those issues. I must say that the mediation session went well. Since then, we have seen a significant decrease in gun violence in Belize City. It cannot be that when these things occur, we talk and then things done. I still think something more drastic needs to be done for these gang members to understand, your behavior has become intolerable and as such drastic actions must be taken against you. We will see how that plays out and we will monitor the situation and see how this goes. And I have said to them in the mediation session that this is the last talk. If it continues, we are not going to sit down and talk anymore, something else will be done.”

Reporter

“Why are you still doing these mediation sessions when you have been a part of so many short lived truces?”

Chester Williams

“The truth is sometimes it’s good to sit down and get what people are going through. But I do agree it must not always be that.”