Belize Not on Top 10 Most Murderous Country List

For 2022, Belize was not one of the top ten most murderous countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region. A study from Insight Crime shows that Belize placed eleventh. Belize ended 2022 with 113 murders, a decrease from 125 in 2021, and a homicide rate of 25 per 100,000 people. This is the first time in many years that Belize does not make the top ten. Reacting to the study today was Police Commissioner Chester Williams.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “It is all a result of hard work, dedication and commitment on the part of the police department and our partner agencies that work very closely with us. As you would know that we piloted the multisectoral approach of fighting crime last year and that module does incorporate the assistance or the support of other governmental and non governmental organizations where we’re not just looking at addressing crime from a response standpoint but to be more proactive dealing with the symptoms of crime. As you would know that there are several factors that may drive individuals to committing crime and so what we’re doing from the multisectoral standpoint is to see how we can address those factors with a view to prevent people from even getting the opportunity to become criminals because whatever needs they may have we’re trying to see how we can fulfill it by tapping into different agencies. So we have for example the Ministry of Human Development with the pantry program. We have Ministry of Education which has now launched free education on south side Belize City so we’re seeing more and more students going to school now so they’re not on the streets idling and being recruited by gang members they’re working towards becoming more educated and more productive members of society. So those are things that go a very long way. The Ministry of Youth and Sports has been very huge in terms of support with the police department looking at sporting activities across the country to engage young people. I’ve always said that one of the best ways to intervene among rivaling people is by sports. Intervention through sports is always good. It gives these young men the opportunity for them to become more disciplined, to interact with each other, to be able to discuss and get to know each other better and that diffuses tensions. So we are very grateful as to where we are now. Yes there is a lot of work that needs to be done and we are moving full steam ahead in making sure that whatever is there to be done is done. We are not in that celebratory mode as yet because like I said we have only piloted the project we still need to look at other components of the project that we’re trying to launch this year and we believe that once we launch those other components it is going to make it even better and we’re hoping that when 2023 comes to a close we’ll be seeing better results than we did in 2022.”