7 News Belize

Are Soldiers Roughing Up City Youths At BDF Camp
posted (August 19, 2014)
Last night on 7News, you heard the explosive allegations about the Boot Camp for at-risk city youths that the police and BDF had set up at Camp Belizario in Cayo. Well, today the Commander of the BDF General David Jones invited the media to the camp to see for themselves what's happening.

We found out that discipline and punishments were given out after an all-out gang war broke out at the opening of the camp.

Sr. Supt. Edward Broaster, Deputy Commander - Eastern Division
"I as you can see I came here personally here to visit and I saw the program being run here and I can assure parents that their children are safe. We had couple brawls and the BDF got them under control."

Lt. Col. A. Loria, Camp Commander
"We got an initial 30 kids that ages range from eleven to sixteen. They were here for about a week and then another group of 14 were brought but they were a little older, they were about from sixteen to eighteen years of age. As they arrived on camp they started to tell remarks to the group that was already here that they will run things and they immediately formed two gangs and in the evening they went into a full brawl and my instructors were caught in that brawl. It was a big fight in the dining hall, the chairs were flying all over the place and it was really unfortunate, one of my instructors he had his arm, I don't know if it's fractured, he will get an x-ray soon later or maybe tomorrow. My instructors had to intervene using the amount of force that was necessary to quell the fight and that is what the kids refer to the BDF using violence, but it's something that had to be done or else they would have just injured themselves. It's a regrettable situation, but it had to be dealt in that way, so that it could be brought under control. We had a second incident also in which the same 14 guys, the older folks were trying to run away 14 of them. They came here with metal rods, sticks and they were challenging the soldiers. We manage to cool the situation down."

Jules Vasquez
"Were they subjected to having to crawl through mud and their faces with leaches at them, that sort of thing what they called "suck suck.""

Lt. Col. A. Loria, Camp Commander
"That was a rainy night and that is precisely when the 14 older folks were trying to run away. We had them here during the night. It was raining during that night and perhaps when we brought the situation under control that is when we started to give them pushups and sit ups and eventually they were taken to the showers, they showered and off they went to bed."

Jules Vasquez
"Finally, he also claims that the soldiers would taunt them at night; speaking about their mothers trying to insult them. Explain?"

Lt. Col. A. Loria, Camp Commander
"I feel that you are making that up Jules."

Jules Vasquez
"No, he really said that. He really said that the soldiers would tell them about their mother at night when they were trying to sleep to play with their minds. That's the description."

Lt. Col. A. Loria, Camp Commander
"9pm the lights are out and up to the instructors are really tired and they need their rest and we have at least one soldier that stays with them in each barrack room. We have 4 barrack rooms. 9 o' clock everybody is tired. Dealing with kids is not easy, especially youths at risk."

Brigadier General David Jones, BDF Commander
"When these guys arrived here, for the most part most of them had this rage and anger inside them. If you talk to them too loud, if they want to do something and you don't allow them they resort to violence immediately. That sort of mentality is prominent among most of these guys. They would follow instructions to the T, the younger ones. If they get instructions to do something on the streets on Belize City, they won't think twice about it especially if you pay them for it they will do it and we realize that when they got here because as soon as they were here they fragmented themselves into different gangs and they knew different gang members from different turf and they started to fight with them."

"We change that in just about 3 days. It's been over a week now and they are following instructions from the soldiers; they are doing exactly what they are told and they have integrated among each other. What we experience is more than what we expected; the level of anger and violence that are with these kids, we were not sure what we were getting into, so it is an eye opener for us and it is something that we have learn from and it is something that we will more be better prepared when we actually establish the facility at Mountain Pine Ridge."

"Most of them are already use to using drugs every day. They expressed to us that they need to have their drugs every day. Marijuana is the main thing, they say they need to have their weed every day."

Jules Vasquez
"How have you been managing that?"

Brigadier General David Jones, BDF Commander
"The meantime now they are being deprived, but these kids are very ingenuitive; when they found out they couldn't fine the Marijuana, they find trumpet leaves around the camp and they start smoking that. I don't know what that does for them, but when they couldn't get the Marijuana, they find different things around that they want to smoke. We do our best to take away the lighters, the matches from them, but from somewhere somehow they manage to find them again. We search them when they arrive here, we found ice pick, they have little knives, they have tooth brushes that they sharpened."

Jules Vasquez
"They came here with that."

Brigadier General David Jones, BDF Commander
"The same tooth brushes that we buy for them they sharpen it and turn it into knives and turn it into weapons because when they arrive here for the most part they came in their slippers, some didn't even have a tennis shoe to wear, we bought all that for them. Some of them came here without a sheet, pillow, pillow case we bought all that for them. So we bought the full outfit for them and have them in a bed to sleep and rest and we provide their 3 meals a day. But the gang mentality, the violence mentality is still within these kids. The glass louvers that we had here on the base, they broke them up, turn them into little knives to fight with each other and that is why we had to remove the earlier set and that is what triggered the last brawl that occurred because they went to break the louvers to stab the other group. The soldiers had to get involve to break up that fight and they had to use force to quell the situation."

Jules Vasquez
"Might there not be a situation where soldiers are just soldiers and they are not social workers and they were put in a situation where they felt they were physically attacked and provoked; one of them fractured his hand, and that it is inevitable that you say alright well I am going to show you all who is the boss. It's just men we are dealing with. Might that not have happened?"

Brigadier General David Jones, BDF Commander
"No, that won't be the case. In this particular scenario what occurred, the soldiers that responded to the incident had to use force to try to stop these kids. There were a number of them and some of them extremely violent had weapons with them and they took the metal chairs from inside the canteen and start to hit each other and in turn start to hit the soldiers as well. The soldiers had to retaliate and they had to respond with force. The soldiers got the situation under control and these kids calm down."

Jules Vasquez
"Were you surprised by how hardened their circumstances have made some of them and how prepared they are to do violence?"

Brigadier General David Jones, BDF Commander
"I have been aware of the situation in Belize, but the truth is I was a bit shocked at what these kids are capable of doing and the level of anger and violence that is stirring inside these kids I was a bit shocked. I had no idea of the magnitude of the problems that are there in Belize City. If this situation is not dealt with adequately these are the actual next generation of killers you have in Belize City that are breeding right there and if the government and the people don't do something now as what national security is trying to do, these are the next generation of killers that we have right here."

The camp which is properly known as the Reform School Summer Camp is in its second week. It started out with 53 youths and is now down to 30 - with many leaving to start school. But a good number have also left with their parents - and in tomorrow's news we'll look more closely at why they're leaving while others stay.

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