SOE imposed on Belize City
Belize has declared a state of emergency (SOE) in the capital to curb the unabated gang warfare that has led to the murders of several people.
Home Affairs Minister, Kareem Musa, told a news conference following a weekend raid by police officers during which 25 people were detained that the decision to impose the state of emergency was made towards the end of last week and that three areas have been placed under the SOE capturing the entire expansion area.
“The decision that was made, of course, was not an easy one, but it is of paramount importance that we provide safety and security for our law-abiding citizens, and based on the intelligence that the police had been gathering, this decision had to be made for a state of emergency within this minimal area, Musa said.
He told reporters that of the last four murders in the capital, he is “reasonably certain we will have at least two charges if not three.
“Along with good police work and aided with the assistance of CCTV cameras, we can identify who these individuals are. We can make arrests. Those are the primary crime-fighting efforts."
Police Commissioner Chester Williams said the SOE is not a blanket where the authorities are “just picking up any and anybody from within those areas, but we have a number of persons being targeted.
“And what we are doing is to pick them up based on intelligence and just pluck out those persons who our intelligence is telling us are creating the problems or have the potential of creating problems in those declared areas. We have detained …25 persons…and there are still a few persons we are looking for.”
Williams defended the SOE saying those persons continue to live a lifestyle where they continue to create fear in the lives of ordinary people. As a result, the government has a responsibility to ensure the safety of the citizenry.
“And while the SOE may be the measure of last resort, as the minister has said, sometimes it is the necessary evil that we need to apply to ensure that we get these people to pause their actions,” the top cop added.
Williams confirmed that some of those detained will be charged with murder.
“So, as the minister said, most of the murders we are having, we are making success in detecting them and with what we have, we think that we can successfully prosecute them eventually, down the road.”
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