13th Amendment Bill Faces Possible Delay Despite 90-Day Wait Ending

The mandatory 90-day waiting period before the 13th Amendment Bill can be brought back to the National Assembly for its second reading expires today. However, controversial legislation might still not be on the agenda for the next House Meeting. In an exclusive interview with Love News, Prime Minister John Briceno said that the second reading might be delayed with a view to gain more insights from the citizenry.  He stressed that the 13^th Amendment is only one tool in the government’s overall strategy to address violent crimes.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “Well, I’m not sure if we’ll be ready for September. We plan to have a House meeting in September because  we have said that we will do enough consultations. And I’ve not gotten the report of all the consultations that they have done but we’ve been doing a number of consultations. And a lot of times it’s much ado about nothing. And I’m not dismissing the, and I quickly add, I’m not dismissing the concerns of certain sectors of the society whereby it’s important for us to be able to protect the basic rights of our citizens and we cannot afford to trample on those rights. But at the same time we cannot afford to be able to trample on the rights of all the law abiding citizens, especially in the pockets of the country, in particular South Side of Belize City, where sometimes a group of guys just starting to create havoc in that area. And we believe that as a government we need to be able to have the tools, there wherewithal to able to step in and to be able to get in decisively and try to break that cycle at that very moment. I’m not suggesting that that is the answer. That’s just a temporary solution. But the real answer has to be what are we going to do with our young people? How can we equip them so that they can find a job?  So we’ve been doing our best to provide more more free education,  especially in the South Side of Belize City. Right now we are going to do a $30 million loan from the IDB and from Taiwan. So for us to be able  to strengthen our ITVETs, to be able to train, to do a lot of training, to train our young people to have  a profession, to be an electrician, to be a plumber, to  be able to do some construction work. So we’re doing that because these very young kids that will soon be needing a job, we need to equip them with the tools for them to be able to succeed.  So the 13th Amendment is not the answer but it is something that can help us to able to step in very quickly and end that cycle of violence that would flare up from time to time.”

Since its first introduction in the House on May 26, there have been two public consultations.  One in Belize City and the other in Belmopan, spearheaded by the Constitution and Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. The public’s participation was lacking at both events, something Prime Minister Briceno says was disappointing.  

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “To be frank. I expected more people to participate and they didn’t. But because maybe it could be that the  public generally supports the 13th Amendment because if they didn’t they would have been out there expressing their concerns. And I understand the Dickie Bradleys of the world and Audrey Maturas and so, you know, as being attorneys and being the guardians of our laws in Belize and the importance of protecting the rights of our citizens. And I respect that. But at the same time, I am hoping that they could also understand from our perspective that we have to protect their rights, but we also have to protect the rights of all these other citizens that are being terrorized by a small group of people. We will always find somebody that will find some complaint. If you have it at night they’ll say oh it was too late and I didn’t want to leave my house, I came form work late. We will always have but we just have to live with it and fair criticism. I’m not going to get upset over it.”

The constitutional amendment is the Government’s response to address surges in violent crime as well as litigation resulting from detentions under the State of Emergency declarations. Through the amendment to the constitution, the Governor General would be empowered to declare “special zones,” Since its first introduction in the House on May 26, there have been two public consultations.  One in Belize City and the other in Belmopan, spearheaded by the Constitution and Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. The public’s participation was lacking at both events, something Prime Minister Briceno says was disappointing.