Minister of Home Affairs On Recent Belize City Murders

A spate of murders in Belize City in the past few weeks has raised questions about the Briceño administration’s approach to fighting crime. Since taking office, the Minister of Home Affairs has been partnering with various organizations and government ministries in an effort to tackle crime using a multi-sectoral approach. But, with the spike in murders over the last two weeks, the government’s approach to crime fighting has been brought into question, particularly by the Opposition.  Here is how Minister Kareem Musa responded to those criticisms, noting that a state of emergency may be instated if these murders continue.

Kareem Musa

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“Well first of all, you have to understand that the multi-sectoral approach is not an overnight fix. I will repeat that as often as I need to, because we have a very serious issue in our country, a very serious problem with twenty one gangs in Belize City alone. That won’t fix overnight. So, criminals who are hell bent on continuing their life of crime we will come down hard on them. That will not change. What has changed is getting more departments, the Department of Youth Service involved, getting the Ministry of Education involved, to realize that we have a long-term program that we are putting in place to actually stem the tide. That is what we are putting in place. So, between October and now it is not expected that you are going to see that kind of result in the multi-0sectoral approach. So, it has to go in tandem, hand in hand with very tough policing on those criminals who are hell bet on wreaking havoc. States of Emergencies, as you know, it is a band-aid fix for an issue. We have certainly not ruled out States of Emergencies. It is not necessarily our go to formula. Moving forward, we do believe in a long term fix for the crime problem in our country. But, if it gets to a point where we are seeing that the murders are happening and retaliations are happening too regularly, we will have to implement the State of Emergency again.”