Minister of Home Affairs on Youth Murders

Kareem Musa

The murder of fifteen-year-old Joshua Flores in Dangriga on Wednesday is the first incident for the New Year to claim the life of another male minor.  The homicide came a few hours after the Minister of Home Affairs had outlined several initiatives to get young people off the streets and back into the classroom through the efforts of the Leadership Intervention Unit.  Regrettably, he may have spoken a bit too soon.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“We saw the recruitment of a lot of young people by these gangs, a lot of young people who don’t know why they are killing one another and a lot of them becoming collateral damage, really. In one instance, a mistaken identity, and in another instance, a mistake by a police officer. Those are very regrettable, as minister, and so, moving forward a lot of the initiatives that we have are targeting the very, very young.  Like I said, we have to get them enrolled in school. That is why the Minister of Education has already announced that we will have free education in four schools on the south-side of Belize City.  That’s very important, to get these young people back in school and if they are not academically inclined then we can get them in any one of the entrepreneurial skills program that we have or the vocational skills training program that we have as part of the Leadership Intervention Unit.”