John Kelly is US President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff but up until January of 2016, the then General Kelly was still the commander of US Southcom. That's the US Department of Defense's Southern Command, which has responsibility for pretty much everything south of Mexico, right up to the tip of Chile, meaning Central America, Latin America and the Caribbean.
And that's why Kelly was in Belize in September of 2013, on a Central American tour. He was whisked into Belmopan on a fleet of US Army choppers and we asked him where the US stands on marijuana eradication. That year, US chopper support and been used in record-setting BDF eradication operations.
Since possession of small amounts of marijuana has now been decriminalized in Belize we thought it would be instructive to go into our archives and hear the view of the man who now has the ear of the US President:...
Jules Vasquez
"The US Southcom provided air support for the Belize security forces to go on a three day Marijuana search and destroy mission."
General John F. Kelly (Marines)
"It wasn't the US that they found the marijuana fields, it was the US that assisted - you all have superb security forces in eradicating the marijuana."
Jules Vasquez
"Will this be duplicated and secondly - our Prime Minster has said that, is the United States sending a mixed message because medicinal marijuana has been legalized in a number of states and there is a lobby to increase that. How do you square those two things?"
General John F. Kelly (Marines)
"The first one I can answer but the second is a minefield Jules but I'll try there too. That is a discussion in my country that I am watching myself, as a father, as someone that has experienced the negative parts of what drugs does to a human being - watching with great interest but as we say in the United States - 'the United States Military doesn't make policy, we just execute it.' "
Marijuana possession, use and trafficking still remains a federal offense in the US - though various states have legalized and license its sale for recreational use. Canada is planning to legalize the sale and recreational use of marijuana next year.
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