The grenade attack on the home of the Comptroller of Customs, Greg Gibson, on Tuesday night, is a very serious development. The evidence is strong that this was a case of narcoterrorism, because Gibson had been warned before by certain people.
The biggest challenge is for Belize’s Ministry of National Security. If the nation cannot protect its highest ranking public officers when their service to the nation brings them into conflict with narcoterrorists, then Belizeans will have to confront the reality of just how corrupt our small nation has become.
Law and order begins with the community itself. If the community is corrupt, and places Mammon before principle and righteousness, the job of the police force becomes extremely difficult, impossible even. Where the community is corrupt, it is inevitable that the police also become corrupt. Most often, our community points public fingers at the police, because it is the police’s job to preserve law and order. But the community appears bogus to us. Belize is corrupt from the top to the bottom. We have a problem. And now, that problem comes with a grenade in the night thrown at a public officer. This is the worst it’s ever been.