Operation Jaguar

After months of continued and daily public outcry on the airwaves about the crime situation, all the UDP government can do is to launch a police/BDF operation. When I heard about the so called “Operation Jaguar,” it made me feel like we are living in a banana republic. This government is clueless on ways to deal with the crime situation and is trying all kinds of haphazard approaches until something works. The bunch of incompetent UDP elected officials can’t be so dumb to not know that Operation Jaguar is just a cosmetic solution to the real issues. Get real Jack; we are living in a real country with real situations, not imaginations and possibilities.

After a very long period of neglect from the Minister of National Security, some of the streets became more of a war zone; guns became the order of the day, grenades, daily murders, assault, robberies and armed hold ups are all that we hear about on the news.  Jules’ televised images on the launching of Operation Jaguar gave a perception that Belize is Bagdad. The only missing images from the so called “Operation Jaguar” are war tanks. From what I saw it seems that operation jaguar will have heavily armed BDF soldiers with military weapon on foot and in vehicles on every street, searching anyone that looks suspicious to them. In addition, the Police by its own admission said that because they are lacking in man power, regular citizens were sworn in as special constables to conduct stop-searches on individuals, patrol the streets of Belize City and make arrests if necessary. Is this a joke?

I would be one of the first to admit that crime did not happen overnight; but if crime is ignored and left unattended for a very long period of time, then it becomes manifested even more. Under a PUP government, the citizenry saw murders and similar incidents, but the then government left no stone unturned. The government even hauled in experts from Mexico, through the help of the business community, to process and reconstruct crime scenes and even conduct ballistics testing on recovered murder weapons. The judiciary system was allowed to carry out its duties; the DPP’s office was fully functional; in other words everything was working fairly well. Not perfect but fairly good.  Never before have our streets been as dangerous over the past 10 years as they are now. Yes, there were murders, but not as common as they are now. But the Prime Minister and his Cabinet want us to believe that crime has gone down. Fool deh talk but da noh fool deh listen.

Why are we where we are right now, having to launch Operation Jaguar? The Prime Minister, when leader of the Opposition, through his call for civil disobedient and civil unrest, paved the way for the criminal elements to break loose. Now that he has gotten more than he bargained for, he is clueless on how to bring back calm and stability to this country. It was the UDP government which allowed the people to lost trust and confidence in both the Police and the entire justice system. It was the Prime Minister that turned the police against the people when he allowed the Head of the Police Department to say that the Police will “shoot to kill.” It was the Prime Minister who allowed his government to enter into agreements with the “head of the gangs” and after the kitty got empty, it is back to crime as usual. I cannot blame the Prime Minister for being frustrated over the public outcry over the crime situation that has put a black eye on his government, but I blame him squarely for selling the electorates a bunch of incompetent and useless elected officials who can offer no solution to the crime problems.

Belize needs more than just a cosmetic solution like Operation Jaguar; Belize needs true solutions. While it will temporarily reduce crime in Belize City, Operation Jaguar will drive out criminal elements from Belize City who will find no other recourse but to migrate with the criminal minds into other municipalities. Operation Jaguar will move crime from Belize City to other communities. So then we will be back to square 1!

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