U.S. Determined to Combat Regional Gangs  

Another hot-button topic in the region is gangs. Belize already has a multitude of gangs across the country, and just over two months ago, Mexican cartel members staged an uprising in the southern Quintana Roo area, and reports were that it spilled into Belize’s Corozal Free Zone. It prompted Belizean law enforcement authorities to assign special teams in northern Belize to ensure Belizeans’ safety. At home, there’s also been the infiltration of M.S.-thirteen gang members in the Salvapan area of Belmopan. Jacobstein said that the key to preventing furtherance of gang activity is to engage the youths in alternative choices.

 

Eric Jacobstein, Dep. Asst. Sec., Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S State Dept.

“Gang violence, cartel violence have caused generational trauma throughout the region. And it’s something that is a top focus for us whether it’s in Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras. So yes, we absolutely provide support to Belize and other countries in the region in this space. We will continue to do so because we feel that there’s two areas on enforcement that’s critical, and prevention is also very important in order to ensure that individuals don’t join gangs in the first place. So we provide assistance to deal with citizen security itself, but also prevention to work with youth to provide them viable alternatives to joining gangs. So this is at the top of our mind for us in Central America – a key part of our root causes strategy and we’ll continue to focus on it.”