Photo: Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams
85 murders for 2023
by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Fri. Jan. 5, 2024
At the time that this article was written (Friday, January 5, 2024), an entire week had passed since our last edition, and there had been no bloodshed in the streets since December 30—a promising sign, since the murder count at the end of the year was a comparatively low 85.
Throughout December, the eyes of members of the Police Department, the media, and the public were on the murder tally, since there were indications that it could be one of the lowest of the decade, after several years in which the final count was in the triple-digit range.
The month saw 29-year-old Albert Valentine of Punta Gorda Town executed in Belize City on the 12th. Then police re-classified the death of 82-year-old William Watson as a murder after it had initially been thought that he likely died as a result of a fire that damaged his home on the 5th. Then there were three murders within a weekend before Christmas – 19-year-old Leslie Young, Jr. of Belize City, and 45-year-old Hugo Rodriguez of Carmelita Village, Orange Walk District were fatally shot and 22-year-old Irvin Martinez of San Pedro Town, was stabbed.
During the Christmas weekend, two men were killed: 30-year-old Darnell Puerto of Belize City and 30-year-old Kaleem Chun of Punta Gorda. Then after the holidays, there was the discovery of the body of 19-year-old Christian Ramos of Belize City, who authorities believe was murdered and placed in a shipping barrel, where his body remained for days. Finally, to end the year, two murder victims in the city, 38-year-old Jorge Caceres and 28-year-old Trevor Brown of Belize City, were murdered hours apart in separate incidents.
When local reporters questioned Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, he expressed satisfaction with the numbers.
“Well, certainly hard work does pay off. I can say that I have had five, [or] six years of sleepless nights. [I am always] trying to figure out what I can do along with the Police Department and our partner agencies to reduce the murder count; that’s the main one for us. And while many times we came close to achieving that, we have not been able to, until this time around; and it just goes to show that if you believe in what you’re doing,” he said.
“We are not going to, as I said, begin to beat our chest, but rather look at all the good things we did in 2023 and see how we can replicate and even do better in 2024 to make sure that we maintain the numbers as low as possible … I know it is not going to be easy. It’s going to be difficult, but I have every faith and every confidence that with the hard work of the Police Department and the support of our partner agents, we can replicate and maybe even do better,” continued ComPol Williams.
Amandala would like to note that before 2023 concluded with a murder count of 85, the years in the preceding decade which were the most peaceful were 2013 with 99, 2020 with 102, and last year with 113. On the other hand, the deadliest years were 2017 with 142, 2018 with 143, and 2012 with 145 murders.