by Kristen Ku
BELIZE CITY, Wed. July 31, 2024
As the State of Emergency (SOE) continues into its second month in the Belize and Cayo districts, one family, in particular, is worried about the well-being of a 13-year-old minor who was one of the individuals swept up in Belize City by police and detained on the compound of the Belize Central Prison.
Although the detention of a child would normally be concerning, the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, has explained to local media that this wasn’t a random capture; in fact, the minor is alleged to be a part of a gang, and even accused of chasing someone with a firearm only days before police picked him up.
The minor is currently being held at the Wagner Youth Facility within the Belize Central Prison compound, where his legal representative, Leslie Mendez, yesterday, upon requesting to see the minor, was turned away under the pretext of her needing a court order.
In a letter addressed to the Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries, Hon. Kareem Musa, and the Director of the Belize Central Prison, Virgillo Murillo, dated July 30, Mendez explained how unconstitutional the acts of keeping her from her client were.
She noted, “Upon reviewing the Belize Constitution, Statutory Instrument No. 94 of 2024, and Statutory Instrument No. 99 of 2024, I found no provision that exempts or conditions a detainee’s right to access legal representation, much less that of a child detainee. In fact, both the Belize Constitution and Statutory Instrument No. 99 of 2024 explicitly recognize the right of detainees to legal representation,” the letter stated.
Mendez added, “This request is made especially in light of information received regarding my client’s detention conditions, which indicate that he is not merely detained, but is being held in what the prison authorities refer to as the ‘hole’.”
The letter continues, “We underscore that in all decisions affecting a child, the best interest of the child must be the paramount consideration. Here it appears that a tactic of preventative detention is being employed against a child, which is in direct conflict with multiple international human rights conventions, more notably the Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which Belize is signatory.”
In response, Murillo has affirmed that the minor remains in a safe environment among other minors, and has even been a participant in intervention programs offered at the facility.
Currently, the Ministry of Human Development is working to remove the minor from the prison environment and place him elsewhere. But, given their investigation of his affiliation with gangs, the Minister of Human Development, Hon. Dolores Balderamos Garcia shared that they are working on finding an appropriate place that protects both the child and society. As the Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca stated, “We should not have young people at that age in any prison environment.”
Despite the mother of the minor claiming his innocence, ComPol Williams has stated that she is aware of how problematic her child can be. “She’s quite aware of that. She has reached out to somebody for help, and that person had reached out to me. And so, I will try my best to see if I can meet her sometime this week and see what we can work out together to try and help the young man,” he said.
The current SOE is expected to continue until the end of August.