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InSight Crime's 2021 Homicide Round-Up

InSight Crime

1 February 2022

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Belize: 29 per 100,000
With 125 murders in 2021, Belize was unable to follow on from a positive result in 2020, which saw the country's homicides reach their lowest point in a decade.

For the country's commissioner of police, Chester Williams, who spoke to local media, this increase was due to deadly gang conflicts in May and June of last year.

Last July, Vice reported on how over two dozen feuding gangs in Belize City were essentially continuing, at a localized level, one of the most infamous gang rivalries of all time: the Bloods and Crips in Los Angeles. Deportees from the United States brought such loyalties to Belize in the 1980s, similar to how Central American migrants brought the MS13 to the Northern Triangle. Today, Belize's gangs have atomized, only furthering the conflict.

The shooting death of a teenager led to particular outrage about gang violence. Fifteen-year-old Dwayne Gabourel was gunned down as he bought bread in September. Following his death, the government vowed to crack down on illegal weapons sales and gangs.

ID: N862

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