The press was given the lowdown at an unusual Sunday evening Prime Ministerial Press conference. Jules Vasquez was there:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Let me begin by expressing government's shock and anger and rage at what has happened."

Jules Vasquez reporting
What happened was a 26 hour span that saw 5 murders on the Southside.

On Sunday the Prime Minister called in his Cabinet and the heads of the security force for emergency meetings:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"There is a need to do something now!"

And that sense of urgency is what has these BDF soldiers back on the streets today alongside police:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"The Belize Defence Force will be asked, was asked last night and will be asked on a continuing basis to assist the Belize police department with the ongoing campaign."

"This will mean that there will be more boots on the ground and that more effective coverage can be deployed as a way of trying to contain and in fact prevent some of what has been taking place."

And that joint effort also means that the security ministry will have to be consolidated:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"It is necessary, it makes sense for us to reconstitute one umbrella ministry of national security, with one national security ministry now there can only be one national security minister and that Minster will be the Honorable John Saldivar."

But Saldivar was removed from that Ministry 18 months ago for his business dealings with alleged murderer and con man Danny Mason:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"The sort of effort at guilt by association that arose with respect to Minister Saldivar in the context of the mason case, I think has been spent. There has emerged absolutely no evidence of any kind of relationship that was improper between Minister Saldivar and the now infamous or notorious Mr. Mason."

But, he's not only relying on Saldivar, the Government is also going to invoke a rarely used section of the constitution, to create, basically, a state of emergency in certain - as yet unannounced areas of the southside:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"We will under section 18 of the Constitution of Belize ask the Governor General to designate certain clearly demarcated areas on the southside of Belize City as emergency areas."

"The purpose and intent of those regulation clearly, will be to assist the security forces, in particular in their ability to remove from the theater of operations as it were, even if only temporarily, players that are known by the police to be leaders of Murder Inc."

It's an unprecedented step - and the main idea is to detain key gang figures - and hold them more than 48 hours without charge:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"But we believe that we will be able to go beyond just that 48 hours in terms of immobilizing those that we feel need to be taken off the streets at a particularly juncture and for a particular period to, in fact, stanch, resist any upsurge in criminal violence and in murder."

And while the precise terms and locations of those special emergency areas are yet to be defined, the Prime Minister is also asking police to open a dialogue:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"It cannot be just a policy of, or a policy at all of brute force and ignorance. There has to be an effort made to restore trust between the Belize Police Department and the neighborhoods, and the citizens they serve, and, together, with hard policing, the intervention exercises must continue, efforts at conciliation must continue, a serious attempt must be made to win hearts and minds."

Chester Williams, Deputy Commissioner of Police
"I am confident that with those measures announced by the Prime Minister today, that we will be able to arrest the situation and arrest it very quickly. There is no time for procrastination. There is no time for complaining. There is a time for action and we must put our best foot forward."