7 News Belize

US Embassy Representative Speaks On Narcotics Report
posted (April 12, 2018)

Earlier this week we showed you the 2018 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report from the US State Department.  Belize is designated as one of 22 Major Drug-Transit Countries, along with all other Central American Nations - and three Caribbean nations.

Now that's pretty much standard for that report - in which Belize has been included for decades.  But, it also notes, quote, "Belize's drug control efforts are hampered by the same challenges faced by the rest of the country's security sector – corruption, insufficient investigative capacity, an ineffective judicial sector, and a lack of political will."

Corruption? And a lack of political will?  That's strong stuff and today we had a chance to ask the US Embassy's Acting Deputy Chief of Mission what's behind that:..

Deborah Lingwood - Acting Deputy Chief of Mission
"We have a very good cooperation with the government of Belize on this issue, we work very closely now with the Ministry of National Security and certainly with the police and the coast guard in finding ways to combat this and to recognize when drugs are coming through Belize because we know a lot of these drugs end up in the United States. We don't want that to happen, Belize does not want to be a transshipment point either so we rely very heavily on the government of Belize and the police and the coast guard and we would like to continue our effective cooperation with them to combat this problem."

Jules Vasquez
"Isn't it though the rules of supply and demand. The US has an insatiable demand or a large demand for illicit drugs and Belize is actually a victim of North Americas insatiability?"

Deborah Lingwood
"It is true we do have our drug problem in the United States but I think you have to approach the problem from all angles. You need to both reduce demand in the United States but you also need to reduce supply coming from all sources in the world."

Jules Vasquez
"Now the report specific mentions of a lack of political will. There is also a mention of corruption at the official level which the US state department believes facilitates the transshipment of drugs through Belize. Is this an indication that there are complicit authorities within the government or offices within the government who are knowingly facilitating the transshipment of drugs?"

Deborah Lingwood
"We are concerned about corruption, that is outlined in the report but there are also a lot of very good actors within the police and the coast guard and more broadly the Ministry of National Security."

Jules Vasquez
"Those who are not good actors, are there deliberate strategies to exclude them from US training, exclude them having US visas and that sort of thing - if there an effort, an ongoing effort to identify and isolate those persons to let's say in law enforcement or in the political directorate who you all believe are facilitators and not allies?"

Deborah Lingwood
"We do have for certain programming, we do have something called Leahy Vetting where for some people who have been the worse like there has been human rights violations that people have done in their capacity as law enforcement officials. We do fortunately have this program that people who have proven human right violations, we do have to exclude them from our programming."

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7 News Belize