Opposition Leader Calls for Urgent Government Action on Crime

The Leader of the Opposition, Moses “Shyne” Barrow, is calling on the government to take control of the crime situation after several murders and the arrest of alleged narco-hitmen. Over the weekend, two men and two minors were murdered. Barrow says the fact that three of the men lost their lives to gun violence, is a sign that GOB is failing. The LOO says that to make matters worse there is now a new threat emerging in the north. Today, Barrow weighed in on the arrest of apparent sicarios in Corozal and what he says is the government’s lack of urgency to address the matter. 

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “We have a prime minister who is the chairman of the National Security Council. In every other nation that is developing, even in our region, the prime minister takes citizen security to heart. It is a priority. I believe this is the first prime minister that I don’t know when he has met with his National Security Council. Whenever we have crises, when we have emergencies like with the state of emergency on the South Side current, he says nothing. Is it that he doesn’t care about the carnage that is ripping our country apart? And it’s not just the South Side. A young business person was murdered at his home, not the first time. Remember there was a business person executed on Baymen Avenue on the North Side in the Minister of Police’s constituency because noone has any respect for the Minister of Police or his CEO or his ComPol. The criminal elements don’t. So again, I believe that it is politics. The Prime Minister wants the Minister of Police to fail but at the expense of Belizean security, which is shameful. The Prime Minister needs to take a hold of the security crisis that we are having. We are having a problem. It’s not the media reporting it. It’s not Facebook’s fault that two young people were killed in, murdered in 24 hours, that a police killed somebody at a bar.”

Reporter: The ComPol said it’s not a police, was never a police.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “Okay, well somebody was murdered at a bar in Billy White and other murders just within the last few days. Again, four murders. Belizeans voted for better. Belizeans voted for a radical improvement and we have not got that. And we don’t even get the comfort of a prime minister and a minister of police that faces the nation and outlines their solutions. Because when you outline solutions, then you are held accountable. Then you have to deliver but what do they do? They just ignore the Belizean people.”

Barrow was also asked to comment on the Commissioner of Police’s statements regarding the decline in gang-related murders. Yesterday, ComPol told the media that the homicides this weekend were not gang-related and explained that the police have been making progress in quelling gang-related murders. However, Barrow says it isn’t enough and called on the police department to bolster its crime-fighting efforts.