Yesterday the State of Emergency was activated in parts of Southside Belize City, Hattieville, the Another World area of Roaring Creek and the Young Bank area of Camalote.
As we told you, this SOE was triggered by three murders and two shootings that the police believe are all gang related. The murders began with Elwin "Bobo" Lewis on Friday evening, and an increased police presence was needed to ensure there was no retaliation.
But Lewis was a reformed gang member who was much more interested in cultivating peace in his community. He'd been working with the LIU for some time, and even accompanied the Minister of Home Affairs when he traversed the George Street area.
But is his murder a sign of failure on the part of the LIU?
According to chairlady Dominique Noralez, hundreds of people benefit from the project, and while every lost LIU member is a tragedy, it's not a reason to dismantle the system that assists those who need it the most.
Dominique Noralez, Chairlady, LIU
"There are over, in the work program alone, which is not the only program we have, there's the sports program, the agriculture program, the Tubal training program, in the work program alone, we touch the lives of over 300 people in Belize City and the urban areas, so the Roaring Creek, the Dangriga, and all of that so even up north in Orange Walk we've done some work there in terms of the trans-national crime that has been leeching into schools. I have to reiterate all the time that when one of my guys as I call them, get involved as victims or perpetrators, it cannot be the excuse to stop a program and say it is not working because there are 265 other people who are benefitting from a program such as this, which of course needs a bit more of structuring, needs a bit more of institutionalization, which we are working on, in fact I am at a strategic planning meeting as we speak, working on those sort of things, to ensure that we are institutionalized and that we're just not shooting in the dark, which we have not been doing. So yes, it is something that while it saddens us and has us kind of shocked for a moment in time it also reminds us why this sort of work is important because it is generational work that is being done. These men have been caught up in the life of gang and gun violence, which I have to add is a consequence of socio-economic neglect of Southside Belize City and so I always, there's a speech I did where I called the LIU like a Mea Culpa program because we're trying to give people the opportunities that have been taken away from them and some of them are so deep in the life that sometimes it's a bit difficult to come back from but they try, they do their best."
"Instances like these, tragedies like these, is only more of a reason, provides us with more of a purpose to say that this kind of work has to be done because the effects of programs like the LIU will only show ten to twenty years later down the line."
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