“Take me back, to my old home, Belize! There is not a place so fine!” – Mr. Wilfred Peters

Monday, October 17, 2022

Belize no gaan yet! There is still a lot of love in this little Jewel; but there is also a whole lot of heartbreak and anguish, as every week there are reports of another murder, or two, or three, each with a heart-wrenching story of loved ones overcome with grief and pain. And it has reached the point where, more and more citizens are crying out in frustration for a return to carrying out the death penalty as something that might put an end to, or at least drastically reduce the number of productive citizens being lost to violent deaths by the gun or machete. But is that the answer?

Our justice system seems overwhelmed with the number of new cases piling up, as police investigators and our courts battle to keep pace with the plethora of crimes of all sorts, especially economic crimes like theft, robbery, burglary, as well as home invasions and other violent offences such as common assault, wounding, maim, etc. as everyone seems to be on edge. Then there are the murders – some carried out during violent robberies, while others have resulted from emotional revenge vendettas, jealous love, gang turf battles, victims getting caught in a crossfire, or the seemingly more common drug-related “hit” —a targeted, cold blooded execution by a hired “gunman” who may have no personal relationship with the targeted individual. It has been generally accepted that the conviction rate for murder in Belize is less than 10 per cent of those charged. Our Commissioner of Police has publicly lamented the futility of police efforts when critical eye-witnesses, on whom a case often depends, decline to give evidence in court for fear of losing their very lives after receiving threats.

In this prevailing climate of fear and dread that citizens are compelled to live under, aside from the many still grieving the loss of loved ones, more and more people are calling for bringing back the death penalty, but there are at least two important factors often overlooked in that train of thought.

First, the death penalty as a possible deterrent to murders can only be such if the perpetrator is convicted, and such may become even harder if the anticipation is real of possible hanging. Witnesses may be even harder to come by. And with well-schooled defence lawyers and often inept or over-worked police investigators, the would-be killers may remain confident of their chances of escaping conviction and the gallows.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, despite our gut feelings, there is a strong argument that past experience suggests little correlation between the murder rate and application of the death penalty. True, in the old colonial days in Belize when hanging was the norm, murders were few. But then, the whole society was different. There was not a 60 percent poverty rate coexisting with obscene wealth, where hunger is a daily reality for many, while they see others living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Crack cocaine had not turned our social lives upside down, with victims strewn all across the nation; while others are effectively employed in the illegal drug trade, and are “strapped” with lethal weapons to defend their “turf.” We can look at the numbers in places where the death penalty has been enforced, and it doesn’t show the effect we would expect. For example, Amnesty International USA (www.amnestyusa.org) tracked the murder rate in all the states of the U.S. that practiced the death penalty, and those that did not apply the death penalty. And, interestingly, the murder rate fluctuated between the period from 1990 to 2010 in almost the same way with the two sets of states; and in fact, in every year, the states that practiced the death penalty had a higher murder rate than the states that did not use the death penalty. According to their report, “A 2009 survey of criminologists revealed that over 88% believed the death penalty was NOT a deterrent to murder.”

So, despite our emotions and frustration with this terrible problem, we may be barking up the wrong tree. Curtis Mayfield once sang, “People are the same everywhere. They have the same fears, shed similar tears, die in so many years.” But it all depends on the conditions in which people are living. Crime and poverty just seem to go together in the big scheme of things. And the caravans of people running away from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and even Mexico (We in Belize have traditionally had less difficulty gaining access to the U.S.), are mostly poor people seeking out a better life, or not so poor people trying to escape the crime and violence spawned by poverty and exacerbated by the “drug war” in their native lands.

Reviewing the murder rate per 100,000 citizens on the world list in the last two decades of the new millennium is so much like separating the “haves” from the “have nots”. According to wikipedia.org, the numbers reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) show some revealing trends, although the individual accuracy of reported numbers cannot always be verified. While the average for the whole world (195 countries examined) was 6.1 murders per 100,000, Europe, Oceania and Asia all averaged 3.0 or fewer murders per 100,000 of their population. What effectively raised the global average figure was the high murder rate in Africa and the Americas, which together averaged over 15.0 murders per 100,000, which is five times the average for Europe, Oceania and Asia.

In this age of discussion and debate about “Reparations” for the damage suffered due to centuries of slavery and exploitation, the effects are quite graphic when one observes the murder rate figures for countries in the Americas which endured European colonization followed with neo-colonization by big brother USA; and what they all had in common was the presence of significant numbers of African and indigenous people enduring centuries of exploitation of their labor and resources.

While the U.S. is currently sending billions of dollars in arms to help the Ukranians fight their war with Russia, impoverished Central American and Caribbean caravan travellers are making their way north to try and escape the murderous climate of poverty at home and get a piece of “the American pie”. But instead of helping to build the economies of these countries, the U.S. keeps “knocking them down” with “embargoes” and “sanctions”, often intervening on the side of dictatorial and exploitative puppet-leaders, or sending guns and ammunition to fight a drug war that ends up killing more and more poor people in these nations.

Contributing writer Helen Clark in an article “George Schultz was among the first to understand drug policy and prohibition” (at thehill.com dated 02/21/21), said that “Shultz, who died this month at age 100, was a secretary in the Nixon administration at the announcement of the war on drugs in 1971,” and he was of the opinion that “the impacts of drug policies in the Western Hemisphere, supported politically, financially and militarily by the U.S., outsourced the violence, in effect, to Mexico and Guatemala and Honduras. And earlier, Colombia.”  And we may include Belize in that list. For comparison, during a similar period, wikipedia.com had Canada at 2.0, and USA at 6.3; while Mexico was at 28.4, Belize 25.7, Guatemala 22.5, Honduras 36.3, and El Salvador at 37.2 murders per 100,000.

Former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz strongly advocated an end to the “war on drugs,” and that might just be what would stem this terrible tide of violence and murder in our once peaceful Belize. However, the U.S. gun manufacturing industry is doing good business; they are “awash with cash” from agents of the same illegal drug dealers at whom the so-called “war on drugs” is targeted.

We’re in a tough spot, Belizeans; but our forebears have been through centuries of much worse. We’ll get through this because we still have the love, and love conquers all. And remember, this is still our “old home, Belize;” and “There is not a place so fine!”