The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News.
By Nuri Muhammad: I read with considerable interest the October 21, 2026, New York Carib News editorial, “Violence in Jamaica Frightening,” following a deadly confrontation that left two police officers and three civilians dead. The editorial calls for a national initiative of reconciliation, redemption and community renewal, recognizing that Jamaica cannot arrest or imprison its way out of a deeply entrenched culture of violence.
I agree with much of that argument. In fact, we have been making similar arguments in Belize for more than thirty years. However, while Jamaica and Belize share many of the social conditions that produce gang violence, there are important differences in the development and character of our gang problems.
Jamaica’s modern gang phenomenon stretches back some sixty years, with roots in political garrison communities and criminal organizations that eventually acquired considerable wealth, weapons and influence. Belize’s modern gang culture is approximately thirty-five years old. Our gangs are generally smaller, less wealthy and less institutionally organized. We have experienced serious gang-related murders, but not the same established pattern of organized gangs engaging in deadly armed confrontations with the police.
These differences matter. Belize still has an opportunity to prevent the emergence of the kind of entrenched criminal organizations that have made Jamaica’s problem so difficult to resolve. Neither should we be tempted to imitate El Salvador’s model of mass incarceration, which raises serious questions about due process, human rights and the long-term consequences of relying overwhelmingly on imprisonment.
But Belize has something else: a history of intervention that has produced encouraging results.
In February 1995, representatives of fourteen Belize City gangs participated in the historic Bird’s Isle Declaration. The truce, which held for approximately one year with relatively minor breaches, gave rise to the Conscious Youth Development Program (CYDP), providing opportunities for education, employment, counselling and rehabilitation. A subsequent independent evaluation commissioned by the Caribbean Development Bank reported encouraging results, demonstrating that intervention could achieve what enforcement alone could not.
In 1997, the Youth Enhancement Academy provided another important lesson. Of the 73 young men released from the program, nine were subsequently identified as having reoffended, according to our program records. That is approximately 12 percent, although the figure must be understood within the program’s particular follow-up period and definition of reoffending.
In 2020, a training initiative conducted by my consultancy, Innadynamics, at Feinstein’s Stake Bank involved forty still gang-affiliated young men. Eighteen months later, approximately 80 percent were reportedly employed. These are results worth examining, learning from and building upon.
More recently, during the 2024 state of emergency, approximately 200 detained young men participated in intervention and counselling activities. Our subsequent After-Care proposal, called Surviving Soldiers, recognized that releasing a young man from detention without addressing his circumstances is often simply returning him to the conditions that helped produce the problem.
These experiences reinforce something I have consistently argued: crime and violence are symptoms of deeper social conditions. The gang often provides identity, belonging, protection and recognition where families, schools, communities and other institutions have failed to meet those needs.
This does not excuse criminal behavior. Those who commit crimes must be held accountable. But punishment alone cannot transform the circumstances that continually produce another generation of young men attracted to gang life.
Belize has made progress through policing, intelligence gathering, community engagement and targeted interventions. We should recognize those achievements without pretending that our problems have disappeared. Our challenge remains sustaining successful programs, providing meaningful opportunities for young men who want to change, and preventing political changes from interrupting effective interventions.
The Jamaican editorial proposes a National Commission for Reconciliation, Redemption and Community Renewal. Belize may not need to copy that particular model. We already have considerable experience, institutional knowledge and individuals who have demonstrated that intervention and rehabilitation can produce positive results.
What we need is the political will to bring those experiences together into a sustained national strategy.
I have spent more than thirty years working with young men involved in gang culture. I have witnessed the violence, the tragedies and the disappointments. But I have also witnessed remarkable personal transformations.
Jamaica’s experience should serve as a warning, not a prediction of Belize’s future. We do not need to become another Jamaica, nor should we believe that El Salvador’s methods offer the only alternative.
We do not have to begin again. We need to build upon what we have already learned.
The post Jamaica’s Gang violence: Belize has a different story appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.