The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News.
By Lennox Lamb: On November 4, Channel 7 traced three decades of Belize’s response to gang violence, from the 1994 Targeting All Gangs operation to the latest state of emergency. Now National Security Minister Michel Chebat says Belize intends to study El Salvador’s approach. Before Cabinet looks to President Nayib Bukele, it should tell us what it learned from an intervention Belize had already begun to build.[1]
William Dawson was my best friend from high school. A Southside man who grew up with some of the men he later tried to reach, he taught at Ladyville Technical High School, worked at the Kolbe Foundation and led the Leadership Intervention Unit (LIU) until his death on January 25, 2023. My outlook on crime was stricter than his. I supported his mission because I believed it could serve Belize. As a political scientist, I helped him examine approaches from elsewhere. William knew the people who would determine whether those approaches could work here.[2]
I introduced him to James Clark and Better Family Life, a St. Louis community organization that pairs violence de-escalation with training, job placement and family services. William also travelled to Atlanta on a visit facilitated by Ambassador Attallah Shabazz, the eldest daughter of Malcolm X, who has served as Belize’s Ambassador-at-Large since 2002 and has worked for years with young people and incarcerated people here. In Atlanta he met Black policymakers, people with firsthand experience of crime, and people working in rehabilitation. He saw a bridge between the people who make policy and the people who have to live with it. I agreed. Migration, family ties, remittances, music and media connect urban Belize to the United States, and researcher Adam Baird has traced how American gang identities took hold in Belize City and acquired meanings of their own. William was deliberate about where he went to learn and whose experience he took seriously.[3]
His idea was practical. Train people to maintain buildings and do other work government already pays private contractors to perform. Help them earn qualifications, build a work record and eventually compete for contracts. The phrase “paying gang members” leaves out the work and the expectation that participants would eventually earn on their own.
On October 31, after four people were killed on the Coastal Plain Highway, Chebat and Commissioner Richard Rosado held an emergency mediation session with gang-affiliated figures. Chebat later denied that government had offered financial incentives. There can be a legitimate purpose for that kind of contact. William built his work on it. Did the session draw on the LIU’s mediators, relationships and lessons?[4]
William died before his fuller plan could take shape. Rosado worked closely with him, and I had reservations about how much of William’s plan police leadership understood or would carry forward. The commissioner can settle that by explaining what he recommended when the LIU came up for review. Government ended the LIU’s temporary employment component in May 2026, affecting 523 participants, and says other interventions were supposed to continue. Publish the assessment. What training was completed? Where did participants go afterward? What became of the mediation work?[5]
The Belize Crime Observatory recorded 113 murders in 2022 and 87 in 2023. Those totals cannot tell us which disputes William helped settle. Washington University’s evaluation of the St. Louis program documented mediation outcomes but could not determine how many shootings were prevented. We should apply that same care before attributing today’s violence to the loss of one program or the decisions of one commissioner.[6]
Belize is a transit point for cocaine. In October, Julius Espat, who held the Home Affairs portfolio on an interim basis before Chebat took over, spoke about a reported offshore wet drop and, separately, efforts to curb the flow of crack cocaine and firearms in Cayo. I believe cocaine is playing a major part in what we are seeing. How much is reaching Belize City? Who controls its sale? Which robberies, thefts or retaliatory shootings can investigators trace to that trade? An assessment of the violence has to follow the drugs and the money as carefully as it follows the gang rivalries.[7]
It also has to follow access. In a country this small, who can pick up the phone and reach a politician, a business figure or someone high up in policing? If a call can make an inquiry lose momentum or secure treatment another person would never receive, that access helps crime continue. I am asking what influence can buy in Belize. Any allegation about a particular person or case needs evidence.
Commissioners and ministers have changed for decades. Cabinet answers for the policies it sets and the programs it funds. Police leaders answer for their professional judgment and how officers exercise their powers. Are senior officers prepared to tell a minister when a directive gets in the way of sound policing? Can the public trust that promotion in the force depends on how well an officer does the job, including when his professional advice is unwelcome?
And we have to talk plainly about race. Who sits at the table when police and ministers make decisions about Black Southside neighbourhoods? Do officers see the Black young men they encounter as people entitled to the same protection and patience they would extend to anyone else? Racism can show up in whose complaints are taken seriously, how young men are treated on the street and how much effort goes into solving a family’s murder. A study of at-risk youth on the Southside found that their fear and distrust of police changed with how officers treated them. That is why Black Southside residents should help shape policy and have a way to judge how it is carried out.[8]
El Salvador’s reported homicide decline deserves examination, as do the documented arbitrary detentions and abuses in custody. If Cabinet sees a measure Belize can use, it should say which problem it addresses and what safeguards would apply. It should be equally specific about its proposed Second Chance Programme for young people aged 15 to 23, announced alongside plans for tougher gun, drug and gang laws. When we ask a young person to walk away from a gang, what opportunity will actually be waiting for him?[9]
Source notes
- Channel 7, November 4 retrospective on three decades of gang responses, and November 2 coverage of Chebat’s proposed El Salvador visit. (7newsbelize.com)
- Amandala, “LIU Chairman William Dawson dies at 43,” and Channel 5, “William Dawson: The Legacy of a Lion.” (amandala.com.bz, archive.channel5belize.com)
- Better Family Life, 2019 annual report. U.S. Department of Justice, 2018 Project Safe Neighborhoods awards. Channel 5, “Malcom X’s daughter on tour in Belize,” March 18, 2014, on Ambassador Attallah Shabazz’s role as Ambassador-at-Large since 2002. Adam Baird’s research on gang transnationalism in Belize City. (irp.cdn-website.com, justice.gov, archive.channel5belize.com, journals.sagepub.com)
- Breaking Belize News, October 31 coverage of the emergency mediation session, and Channel 7, November 2 coverage of Chebat’s remarks. (breakingbelizenews.com, 7newsbelize.com, upi.com)
- Breaking Belize News, May 27 report on the 523 participants affected. Channel 7, November 3 report on the ministry letter. Channel 5, November 2 report on the LIU assessment. (breakingbelizenews.com, 7newsbelize.com, greaterbelize.com)
- Belize Crime Observatory, 2022 and 2023 murder reports. Contemporary reporting put the initial 2023 police count at 85. Washington University’s Brown School Evaluation Center, 2020 evaluation of the St. Louis pilot. (bco.gov.bz, bco.wimp.bz, amandala.com.bz, static1.squarespace.com)
- S. Department of State, Belize Integrated Country Strategy. Channel 5, October 2 reports on the offshore wet drop and enforcement in Cayo, and coverage of Espat’s interim role. (2021-2025.state.gov, greaterbelize.com)
- Oscar Mmbali’s study of policing and at-risk youth on Belize City’s Southside. (jppc.ro)
- Channel 7, coverage of the proposed El Salvador visit. Amnesty International, July 2026 report on El Salvador. Love FM, November 2 reporting on the proposed Second Chance Programme and tougher penalties. (7newsbelize.com, amnesty.org, lovefm.com)
The post Before Belize looks to Bukele, it must account for Dawson’s unfinished work appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News. By Lennox Lamb: On November 4, Channel 7 traced three decades of Belize’s response to gang violence, from the 1994 Targeting All Gangs operation to the latest state of emergency. Now National Security Minister Michel Chebat
The post Before Belize looks to Bukele, it must account for Dawson’s unfinished work appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
