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Today the group of artists took to the streets of Belmopan, protesting just in front of where the Police and Community course was being inaugurated. We went to Belmopan and spoke to the Minister of State for National Security, Elodio Aragon about this controversial training. Here's what he had to say, and how the protesters responded to his remarks...

Hon. Elodio Aragon, Minister of State - National Security
"Well I don't know about the controversy. I guess you will have to ask them out there. What is happening here today, today is the launch of a course from today up to the 4th July. It's a 2 weeks course roughly. It has to do with the police and community training. Its abo0ut community policing in essence. It's about imparting the knowledge for police officers to be better oriented in dealing with the community. That is what it's about. It going to be training 15 police officers from countrywide and it also going to touch on 15 other personnel from other agencies: people from NDAC, special constable part of the police and also I think some media personnel are in there likewise. It all has to do with community policing."

Reporter
"While you will not acknowledge it as such, the controversy at least on the part on those who are outside protesting is the fact that you are proceeding with a government that has been considered to be very tyrannical, for lack of a better word, in terms of the way its dealing with the Palestinians and of course its allegiance to Guatemala."

Hon. Elodio Aragon
"Well you know we deal with a lot of countries. We deal with the United States, with all kind of countries who have relations with Belize and when it comes to training, this is community policing training that we are talking about. It is something to improve our police department. It is something that will improve relationship between the police and the community and that is what is important to us."

Yasser Musa, protesting artist
"This is the first moment that our government has spoken officially and was taking your word for it. They are now saying this is community training. Mr. Aragon, when it was the Israelis that made the invitation. It's not Mr. Aragon that invited the diplomats here. It's not Mr. Aragon that said that we are going to have community policing. It is the Israelis that are saying it. They are control of his agenda and his agenda is apparating. He is sucking up to his own foreign minister and the delusional position they have taken on this issue. He should have come to the people in an educational context and said we are going to change policy, we are going to invite the Israelis in and this is how it will work. Has that been said? No. What we are waiting for is for the Israelis to invite us in this crazy way. To me, that does not hold water what he is saying. He is being duplicitous and dishonest with the Belizean people."

Israel's actions against Palestine have been highly criticized for decades, and the Belizean government has condemned the Israeli government at the UN as well, so we asked Aragon if he could at least recognize where the protesters were coming from. Here's what he had to say and how the protesters responded...

Reporter
"Belize has been one of 120 UN member nations to condemn Israel actions against Palestinians in certain issues and now that they are here to train us, can you see where they are coming from at least?"

Hon. Elodio Aragon
"I think if you want to find issues, I guess in everything you can find issues. I hear them. I guess they support Palestine and that is their given right. Nobody is fighting against them in regards to that. I do think there are bigger issues that concerns Belize. I mean some of the issues is all the lands that have been taken away from our Orange Walkenos in the Tower Hill area for instance. We have the Opposition party leader who has taken thousands upon thousands of acres from Orange Walkenos. That is an issue that they should be championing. It concerns Belize. It is the here and now. Palestine and Israel is half the world away from us and I think this issue in making a big issue in regards to community policing training that we are getting. We must understand that Belize is a small nation and we get training from the Americans, Mexicans - we get training from all aspects - all countries that are willing to offer and we believe we can gain certain knowledge from. That is what we do and that is where we are today. I don't see it as a major issue of concern. I think there are greater issues like I told you that they should be concerned."

Reporter
"How do you respond to the allegation that you guys are maybe not processing the right thing, or the thing that needs the most protesting?"

Yasser Musa, protesting artist
"Mr. Aragon could never suggest to us the artist of Belize what to protest. He has no moral authority. His government is bankrupt. He should decide what he wants to do and let me recommending something since he is recommending something to us. He should stand up to his foreign minister and tell the foreign minister that your Israeli government's policy to train our police is unacceptable. Have the decency and the dignity to do that. Not come and try to play games. We are only artists. We are people coming here with a human rights position. This is nothing to do with politics and all that. This is to do with the position that we do not accept and we protest strongly that Israel does not have the record to train our people."

Katie Usher, protesting artist
"To add to that, about 3 years ago I did a piece where I wrote on the Image Factory walls names, 70 names between January 2015 and it's on the Image Factory website, to July 2015. And one of those names was a reporter who use to always say listen this is too much. So if he thinks that we just start to get concern yesterday, we have been concern for a long time and the artists have been asking for long time what are you going to do about it. Of those 70 names, how many of those murders have been solved?"

The National Evangelical Association of Belize issued a press release today declaring it's full support for Israel in Belize, welcoming their presence.