Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023
The recent violent events claiming a number of lives at the close of 2022, and the implication of those murders in our capital city, Belmopan, are at once a great tragedy, and a major opportunity for a possible breakthrough in the seemingly impossible struggle to free our country’s criminal justice system from the far-reaching claws of “invisible hands” that direct and control the corruption of officials high and low, and have been referred to over the decades as “dons”, “kingpins”, “dealers”, etc.
The so-called “drug war” that has been waged by the largest illegal drug consumer nation, the United States of America, since the early 1970s, has been proven unwinnable, because their population continues to desire and seek the use of these drugs, and with the ready market, suppliers keep finding novel ways to bring it to them. Roberta Flack once sang about “good people turning bad” in the “Trade Winds of Our Time,” as the attraction of big, easy money overwhelms many “good citizens”, including some in the legal profession, as well as law enforcement officials.
Despite the noble efforts and declarations of current Police Commissioner, Chester Williams, there is one glaring fact that confirms the limitation of his efforts, and those of his predecessors in that office. While some progress has been made in the recent Leadership Intervention Unit (LIU) to get some small-time gang members and leaders to choose a different path, the fact is that their positions are soon taken by young up-and-coming aspirants, and the game goes on — the movement of illegal drugs, and the violence that occasionally erupts in the conflicts between rival groups in the trade. But despite all the publicity and the successful rehabilitation of some young gang members, what the recent year-ending violent events confirm “beyond reasonable doubt” is that the illegal drug business is still lucrative enough to continue being a bone of contention among rival groups in the trade. But that is not the glaring fact to which we referred earlier in this paragraph. What we are referring to is the fact that, to date in the Belize justice system, there has never been a single big player, a so-called “kingpin” or “don,” sent to spend time at Kolbe. None have ever even been arrested.
There are big questions to be answered. Commissioner Williams publicly asserted that, more often than not, he (police intelligence) knows who committed the violent crime; but without witnesses willing to testify in court, police are unable to prosecute cases effectively, thus the many crimes that go unsolved, or that are lost in court when witnesses fail to appear or claim to forget the incident. It would therefore stand to reason that our police intelligence also knows who are the “kingpins”, “dons” or “dealers” of drugs in our society, who call the shots for our little small-time gang leaders, and keep the game of violence thriving to the detriment of our once “peaceful haven of democracy.”
In their election campaign back in 1984, the soon to be UDP deputy prime minister and minister responsible for police, Curl Thompson, declared on a public rostrum in the Majestic open lot that, “We know who they are,” referring to the “drug dons.” But through their several terms in office since then, and those of the PUP, the drug dons, whoever they are, have remained untouchable.
Belizeans are not a vengeful or grudging people; and if the business of the drug dons was conducted without the lives of many young Belizeans being lost, most of us would probably just say, “Leave them to God.” But since the early 1990s when crack cocaine and the cocaine transhipment business took root in Belize, we have seen our young men cut down in the prime of their lives at a rate that remains over a hundred each year.
In frustration, both our police commissioner and our current minister of police have exhorted Belizean citizens to join in the fight against violent crime, as the police cannot do it alone. But what they have also admitted, is that within their own ranks are rogue officers who are “working” for the criminal drug dealers. And honest, hardworking Belizean citizens are caught in the middle. The Commissioner needs eyewitnesses to help prosecute accused criminals in court; but citizens have become wary of their identity being leaked to criminals by the very cops whom they give their eyewitness reports to. Witnesses have thus been threatened, and a number have also been killed. Even with a singular judge prosecuting a murder case to avoid intimidation of jurors, the conviction rate remains abominable with no eyewitness evidence. The threat of possible prosecution is therefore hardly a deterrent to violent criminals, knowing the odds are stacked in their favour. Moreover, even in their worst-case scenario where they might be convicted in court, it would only mean some time in a comfortable cell until it is time for parole or a successful appeal. The game goes on, and the only question is how far above a hundred murders will the nation endure in 2023.
With the video evidence available for all the public to see, it is the general consensus, not refuted by the Commissioner, that the New Year’s Eve murders in Belmopan have all the attributes of a professional hit.
Citizens have lost a lot of trust in a failing justice system, and will be watching the prosecution of this case very closely. Meanwhile, of maximum concern is the safety and well-being of the miraculous survivor, who should have something to add to prosecution efforts. And, if it is for once the concern of our criminal justice system that the real perpetrator—not the hired assassin, but the invisible hand that called the shot—be exposed and brought to justice, then maybe we need to also give maximum protection to the accused Mr. Elmer Nah, until he can divulge some of his dark secrets.
Like our northern neighbour, Belize may be headed down the road to a future blood bath if the local kingpins of the drug trade are allowed to continue building their arsenal of corrupt agents with impunity. There is a choice before us: the rule of guns, or the rule of law. What’s the use of the “paper” if you can’t spend it in peace, bro? The battle to save our democracy is a challenge for every Belizean who cares.