Sunday, April 21, 2024
It has long been established in Belize that this “tranquil haven of democracy” ceased being that some decades ago when the drug trafficking business became a huge factor in our local economy. Marijuana (weed) was always an item among certain members of our population, but it was mostly a local recreational affair, with individual farmers in different districts providing the supplies needed to satisfy the demand in the rest of the country, mainly Belize City, the commercial and population center. And up into the early 1970s, drug-related murder was not on the agenda of our law enforcement officers. Smoking weed was illegal, and so it was part of their routine from time to time to “raid” popular recreation establishments or hang-out spots where weed smokers would be indulging in the herb. But things began to change when Belizeans in the U.S. started establishing links with sources back home for shipments of Belize marijuana (“Belize Breeze”) which had become in high demand in some American cities. And so, the big money entered the picture. And after crack cocaine was introduced to Belize in the mid-eighties, while the cocaine transshipment through Belize began in connection with the civil war in Nicaragua, there was soon very big money flowing in some quarters in Belize, and the battle began for control of this lucrative illegal business.
It is an age-old story, the temptation of big “dirty” money, and those who fall to that temptation. Most vulnerable have been our young men in impoverished situations, many of whom have subscribed to the lure of quick riches, and the gamble to “get rich or die trying”. From Rambo Town in Orange Walk in the 1980s, to “Dragon Units” and various States of Emergency in Belize City and other locales in the ensuing decades, the story has become gang conflicts over turf in the lucrative drug distribution business on the local scene, and an escalating murder rate that has seen over a hundred murders annually in Belize from the mid-1990s onwards.
Many attempts have been made to reduce the carnage, especially when inter-gang violence spills over to affect innocent citizens— an inevitable progression from the point when our young men began possessing guns, to their current search for other targets to secure money when things are slow in the drug business.
To get the “high energy boys” to “hold it down” when the gang violence was seemingly getting out of hand, there was this initiative to employ scores of suspected gang members and have them cut the grass along the first couple miles of the Philip Goldson Highway. But what caught the eye of this observer – the “optics” – was the supposed “gang leaders” posing in comfortable chairs in the shade, while their “soldiers” toiled in the sun with their machetes and weed-eaters. It looked like “gang leader” was a post to be aspired to.
The door should be always open to encourage any young man or woman who wants to make a positive change in life to do so, but not under the guise of their rank in any criminal gang. “St. Christopher’s Inn” should be open to all equally to make a good step forward in life.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Freedom fighters have a legitimate cause – war against the enemy, the oppressor, the occupying forces, the colonial exploiters, etc. etc. What is the legitimate cause of “gangs” in a community, where all other citizens labor at earning an honest living? Every day, there are hard-working and productive Belizeans everywhere; and many are still “taking a licking” trying to stretch their dollar against high prices. Where do these so-called “gang leaders” and gangs fit in all this? What do they produce? Nothing! What do they sell? Drugs to hardworking citizens who got themselves trapped by an addiction. Fair enough. Supply and demand. Someone will provide it, if someone has money and wants to buy it.
However, these gangs, gang leaders are making life stressful and miserable for the many hard-working citizens with their targeting and terrorizing youths in the neighborhoods. Children and youths are no longer free to roam and play without fear of intimidation by agents of the gang leaders. Gunshots and murder have become a way of life for so many children, because the gangs and gang leaders are constantly at war with each other over “turf”, for doing their business, selling drugs.
All the hard-working citizens want is to be left alone to go about their lives and their hard, honest work. But, no! The gangs, gang leaders, who do nothing to enhance the lives of citizens, have brought the lives of everyone else to a state of stress and fear and terror; they “run things,” it seems. How? Lucre. Money buys a “green light” from corrupt officers who look the other way. Money buys leniency from corrupt lawyers who “pull strings” inside the police department to “disappear” or obfuscate evidence, so much so that one lawyer even once boasted that he “had never lost a murder case”.
For a few handouts, some blood money, and a moment of lavish living, our people, poor people in the neighborhoods will have to think deeply and decide what they want for their children.
No police, no court, no politician … “only YOU the people can save the people”! It is up to our own people, especially poor people to decide ONCE AND FOR ALL if YOU have had ENOUGH OF THIS MADNESS!