Today, Prime Minister Dean Barrow warned that - after only a month - the gang truce may be on the verge of falling apart.
The Prime Minister disclosed that just yesterday he was apprised of demands that certain gang leaders had made to be paid - not to work - but just to keep the peace. Additionally, they expected him to personally attend mediation sessions.
He told us he refused, knowing that the consequences could be dire:
Prime Minister Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"There are 1 or 2 individual leaders who are beginning to make demands along the lines that they must be paid just for being leaders, and for being facilitators, without doing any work. And I am very sorry; I cannot and will not countenance that. There is one particular leader who is insisting that I come and get involved in the sort of monitoring meetings that take place to review progress. I will not do that. So I don't want to overstate the incipient difficulties, but I also want the public to be kept abreast all along as this thing proceeds. There is success in so far as the majority of those that signed unto this thing, being gainfully employed now, and not joining in with the demands that I just enumerated that I, certainly, am not going to countenance. Because, though, those demands are coming from a very limited number of persons, but who are key cards - who are senior leaders - I have to be worried about the consequences about my making it absolutely clear that I will not giving those demands."
The gang truce was hammered out on September 5th - and the peace held until the end of the parade on September 21st when a 9 year old was killed.
The sets involved in that dispute, Kelly Street and Victoria Street were not a part of the truce talks.
That means that - in the main - the truce has held and continues to hold - but with the new developments, it will have to be watched very closely.
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