BELMOPAN, Belize, Nov 4, CMC – Prime Minister John Briceño says the government consider a number of measures aimed at improving the security of Belizeans even as he acknowledged that “the issue of crime has to be something to be addressed by all of us”.
In a broadcast from Antigua and Barbuda where is attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that ends later on Wednesday in St. John’s, Prime Minister Briceño said he has been in touch with his National Security Minister, Michel Chebat, and other security stakeholders regarding the latest crime wave.
“ Of course a number of these initiatives will have to go to Cabinet for further discussion. But it is important for me to make a few things clear, one is that the issue of crime has to be something to be addressed by all of us, the government, political parties, private sector, public sector, NGOs and the families”
Briceño said that for too long he has been saying that as families “we have not been disciplined enough to keep them off the streets.
“The police knows who most of these gang leaders are and it is time that we go after them and get them off the streets to ensure that our citizens can live safer lives,” Briceño said, adding that “for too long we have been talking about so many of our young children and young adults walking on the streets without anything to do.
“It is time for us to find other alternatives for them. Some of these young adults in these gangs, we need to get them out and put them into special programs where we can teach them discipline, a trade and give them an apprentice, because I have always said, the best social programme a government can have is to give you a job.
“That is what our government is trying to do. This situation is one we must face together, all of us as Belizeans because we are going to do everything possible to ensure that Belize continues to be this peaceful, loving place,” Briceño said in his brief broadcast from St. John’s.
Belize declared a 90-day state of emergency (SoE) in 19 areas across Belize City, Ladyville, Cotton Tree, and Unitedville following a violent surge of gang-related shootings and the killings of four men, including a 16-year-old boy, gunned down in a mass shooting along the Coastal Plain Highway on October 30.
Police have since linked the murders to internal gang disputes and so far this year, the total homicide count is 75.
The National Security Minister has said that officials are studying El Salvador’s anti-gang model to evaluate potential security measures, while opposition figures have criticized the administration for lacking long-term solutions.
Leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), Tracy Panton, while outlining its own plan of action, backed several measures announced by the Briceño administration to deal with the crime situation.
“Guns and gangs are symptoms of a deeper crisis. We must first confront distrust in the Belize Police Department’s leadership. Rampant corruption in our public institutions, criminal elements crossing our borders from neighboring countries, the growing elicit trade in drugs and ammunition and a widening economic divide that deepens family poverty,” she said, calling on the authorities to tackle both the violence and the condition that continues to sustain it.
Panton said in 2025 at least 91 people were murdered in Belize, noting that by the end of June this year the unofficial count had already reached 58 murders.
“At this pace, the 2026 murder count will be worst than 2025. Most importantly since this administration took office of last year, the minister responsible for national security and police has changed three times, we are now on the fourth. Belizeans deserve steady accountability leadership, not a revolving door.”
Panton is also calling for “accountable leadership’ in the police high command, saying the Police Department “and this is no secret, is widely seen as a gang themselves.
“Public confidence in the Commissioner’s leadership, his inability to build institutional morale, allegations of conflict of interest of his office and political directorate, the use of the security apparatus to perpetuate seemingly illegal and unconstitutional detentions, the unwillingness of the Commissioner to hold rogue police officers to account and his inability to earnt eh trust, respect of marginalized communities is below the standards that Belize deserves.
Panton said that the police high command must work with the highest standard of “transparency and accountability, particularly when addressing citizen security” and is calling for the immediate removal of the current Police Commissioner, Dr. Richard Rosado “as a first step to bolstering the public trust and confidence in effective policing. Dr. Richard Rosado must go and he must go now.”
Meanwhile, prominent attorney, Richard “Dickie” Bradley, is against the imposition of an SoE noting that while police may temporarily restrict certain freedoms, residents still have rights and legal protections.
“Although a state of emergency restricts certain rights, it does not wash away your rights. The law still applies in relation to how you navigate a state of emergency. So, we are dealing with a lawless Police Department because they don’t have no respect.
“Can you tell me they have five lawyers and no know Section 5-3 of the constitution? If they could do this with no SoE, they could do it year after year. If they could do this in the face of judges of the Supreme Court, now the High Court, making others that the police were completely unlawful in their behaviour and the order that they pay the people in who have been locked up.
“We need more people to sue. Where is the solution? Okay, you announce that you’re going to have a state of emergency, which you know in your heart is not going to work and will not do anything. It’s a pause you want to claim,” Bradley said.
“This is a serious matter, so let me say the Court of Appeal has looked scrupulously, comprehensively, at this matter of SOE law, and they’re saying that you can’t take a state of emergency and use it as a crime-fighting tool,” said Bradley, adding “the Constitution is very clear: a state of emergency is for earthquake, hurricane, war and insurgency, where daily life is disrupted to a state where you can’t go to the shop.”
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