Gangs in Belize

The earliest "gangs" (like the Wild Bunch) were small crews or posses of mostly lower and working class Creole baseboys who appropriated bases (street corners, alleyways, playgrounds) in Belize City for the sale or use of ganja (cannabis) and for petty crime.^{[n 14]}

With the arrival of the Bloods and Crips, these disparate crews were purportedly coopted and consolidated into two large gangs, now properly street gangs composed of wanna-bes (baseboys) and true gang-bangers (experienced gang members).^[10] By the early 1990s, these street gangs were seemingly being coopted by foreign drug traffickers to facilitate cocaine transshipment to America in exchange for arms (short arms and high-powered rifles) and a portion of the cargo (for local production, sale, and use of crack-cocaine).^{[n 15]} They were also engaging in extortion, for instance, by demanding protection money from locals, including school children.^{[n 16]} Further activities included assaults, robberies, kidnappings, stabbings, shootings, homicides.^[11] There have even been allegations of gangs doing the illicit bidding of local corrupt politicians.^{[n 17]}

When the first street gangs began to splinter, the offshoots originally retained strong allegiances to (and so strong rivalries with) Bloods or Crips. By the turn of the century, however, gang fragmentation accelerated, and rivalries no longer seemed to follow the old Bloods versus Crips line.^{[n 18]} And so "a new generation of gangs emerged" in the 2000s which were neither (or only nominally) Bloods or Crips.^[12] By the 2010s, the new gangs "look[ed] less to US gangsta iconography and more to Jamaican rude boy identities and music".^[13]

Poor, urban, six to twenty-four year old boys not in schooling nor employment are thought to form gangs' core recruits.^[14] These boys are especially found in Southside Belize City.^[15] Their vulnerability to existing gang violence, poverty, and romanticisation of gangs, in addition to poor deterrence by authorities, have been cited as the primary reasons why youth join gangs, with the Gayle Report finding "boys join gangs because of the failings of the state and civil society".^[16] Thus, gangs remain (in fact and fiction) these boys' only recourse for much-needed safety and welfare.^[17]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, street gangs were a mix of inexperienced wanna-bes and experienced gang-bangers.^[18] The former were mostly lower and working class Creole boys, aged twelve to early twenties, many with no or little secondary schooling, and with emigrant parents.^[19] In 1989, one scholar estimated Bloods at some 300 and Crips at some 1,000 members, though the official Home Affairs estimate at the time was circa 75 members total.^{[n 19]}

In the 2000s, official (Home Affairs) estimates found street gangs averaged 10 to 15 members, were concentrated in Southside Belize City, and were deemed responsible for a majority of the country's shootings and gun homicides.^[20] Their members were predominantly 14 to 30 year old males, mostly from underprivileged or dysfunctional homes, with some being deportees themselves or else influenced by deportees.^[21] Also, "limited numbers" of Mestizos were found to be associated with MS 13 or 18th Street.^[22] The Gayle Report found gangs were predominantly present in Southside, with their ethnic makeup fairly reflecting that of the area (three-quarters Creole or Garifuna, and a quarter Mestizo, East Indian, or Maya).^[23] They further found most members were not employable, had relatives in gangs, and could be classed into shottas or greens or soldiers (inexperienced members in their teens or 20s) and dons or bosses or generals (experienced members in their 30s or older).^[24] They conservatively estimated the tally of gangs at "just under 30", with 10 to 30 "hard core members" each.^[25]

Today (2020s), there are an estimated 900 to 1,400 gang members across some three dozen gangs, nearly all in Southside.^[26] A 2023 snowball sample study found gang members were disproportionately school drop outs (despite overwhelmingly positive views towards education), were parents with generally positive views on the importance of parenting, had accumulated relatively little material wealth, and felt unjustly treated by law enforcement and the judiciary (but nonetheless viewed the institutions themselves as necessary for society).^[27]

The most immediate effect of gang activity has been an unabated boom in violent crime, which has surpassed levels deemed epidemic by WHO.^{[n 20]} Further notable impacts include a similarly unrelenting wave of organised crime, the corrosion of social and state institutions, negative health and education outcomes, and economic losses, among others.^[28]

Scholarly attention to Belizean gangs has been relatively sparse (compared to Jamaican, Mexican, and Northern Triangle groups), bar Nuri Muhammad's collection of essays in 1995 Insights Into Gang Culture in Belize: Essays on Youth, Crime and Violence but has nonetheless picked up since the 2010s.^[29] The 2010 Gayle Report, by Jamaican anthropologist Dr Herbert Gayle, is deemed the earliest study to be based on primary data from gang members themselves, followed by a 2016 book (Like Bush Fire) based on the report. Following this, there have been publications by German political economist Dr Hannes Warnecke-Berger^[30] and a number of academic articles by British sociologist and ethnographer Dr Adam Baird including Man a Kill a Man for Nutin' (2019) in Men and Masculinities, From Vulnerability To Violence: Gangs And ‘Homicide Booms’ In Trinidad And Belize (2020) in Urban Crime. An international Journal, The fourth corner of the triangle: Gang transnationalism, fragmentation and evolution in Belize City (2021) in the Routledge International Handbook of Critical Gang Studies^[31], and Masculine vulnerability, gangs, and perpetual violence (2025) in the Routledge Handbook of Masculinities, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. Baird's 2024 book with Temple University Press titled From South Central to Southside: Gang Transnationalism, Masculinity, and Disorganized Violence in Belize City is the first academic book that provides a thorough historical political-economy of the Bloods and Crips in Belize as a transnational phenomenon. Baird provides firsthand accounts with gang leaders, narco families, national police, politicians and civil servants, as well as the international community in Belize. He argues that gang violence in both the United States and Belize - and indeed all gang affected areas globally - arises from communities shaped by long histories of severe inequality and marginalization. In Belize, he identifies this as beginning with colonialism and slavery. Further, by examining the gendered experiences of young men and women as they navigate the allure, risks, and realities of gang involvement in contexts of socio-economic exclusion, Baird introduces the concept of “chronic vulnerability” in Belize City as underpinning gang violence, not cocaine transhipment or 'deviant' individual behaviour.

In recent years the University of Belize Research Office has been established, paving the way for future research on gangs from national academics.

In popular culture, Belizean gangs were first brought to widespread attention by Ross Kemp in a 2008 episode of Ross Kemp on Gangs.^[32] California Assemblyman Tom Hayden had earlier brought them to LA's attention in a 1995 article for the LA Times.^[33]

• Crime in Belize
• List of gangs in Belize