PM on Shooting of Youths and Concrete Solutions

The issue of crime and violence continues to plague Belize. PM Briceno says his administration has a strategy to address the issue. He spoke about the plan and gave his own response to the senseless murder fifteen year old Dwayne Gabourel.

Marleni Cuellar

“I want to make note that this is one story of many and we are not able to get a handle on the situation. The root causes are escalating, not having jobs, people living in poverty, a number of social issues that are yet to be addressed that can actually curb the crime situation. What is being done?”

Prime Minister John Briceno

Prime Minister John Briceno

“I think that um… I just can’t imagine the anguish that deh yah family guh through. I have an eighteen year old. I don’t know what I would do if something like that would happen to him, honestly. And, I say that with sincerity. I feel for these people. And, in this case, from the pictures you are seeing, from the videos you are seeing, this was a good young man that would have been a productive citizen of this country. Then to just get a call that hey, they just shoot your son. There are no words that I could express.  But, it angers me. It gets me so upset. But you don’t want to go after these guys, just go after them. And, while that may be a short term solution, that is not a long term solution. What is the strategy? We know that the violence is in certain pockets and the most troublesome ones is the Southside of Belize City. The Ministry of National Security, Home Affairs, Human Development, Sports and Education got together and came up with a plan to present to Cabinet. Basically what we want to do is to declare the Southside a Special Development Area. And by declaring the Special Development Area, we want to pass a simple piece of legislation that will allow us to encourage business people to invest in the Southside and create jobs, give them certain incentives. That is one thing. The second thing, the kids we want to keep them in school. Minister Fonseca has said lets use the Southside as a pilot project for the free education.”