And the Prime Minister was very candid about the cattle trade to Guatemala which has been disrupted.
As we have been reporting this has caused much pain and economic losses to cattle ranchers.
The informal trade used to run through the backdoor at Bullett Tree in the Cayo District.
But, the Guatemalans have stopped it and today the PM said it must remain that way:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"Why do you keep calling it informal? It wasn't informal, it was illegal. It was illegal and as I tried to explain to the Leader of the Opposition, it's illegal with this possible result. Now that the Guatemalans have said, no don't do it, we will in fact get after you, I suppose diplomatically if you do. We would certainly get after anybody in Guatemala who seeks to continue that trade. Apart from the fear of a diplomatic incident, there is also, it strikes me, the element of money laundering that would be involved. We would be enabling money laundering because money laundering is what you obtain from proceeds of a crime and what you then put in your bank account. And money laundering, you know, is not confined to a particular territorial jurisdiction, that's international. So if we sought to accompany or clear the livestock owners to take the cattle to the border so that the Guatemalans can come and get that cattle, we would be enabling money laundering and we would, ourselves, those who got involved, be possibly guilty of money laundering but you don't even have to go that far, the Guatemalans have said, sir, we will not continue to turn a blind eye, this trade must not happen. They've also said of course let us formalize it, let us make it legal. I don't know how long that would take, meantime, the Caricom people have said they want to buy cattle. I believe is it the Grenadians, or the Vincentians have placed informally an order for like 1,000 heads. Now 1,000 heads in terms of what these people are accustomed to export normally via the illegal route may be seen as not very much, but it's a start. Mexico, with whom we are trying to work for ages, according to the minister, that's now all there except they wanting us to use just one particular corral at Blue Creek and the minister wanted for as it were each cattle ranch to be certified and sanitized and for pick ups to be done from individual cattle ranches. We've agreed that we can't wait on that. Point is that there are other options, nothing would be quite as sweet to the farmers as the illegal trade, because remember that nobody was paying government official on either side of the border a dime, so all the reasons I've outlined, it can't continue."
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