In the Prime Minister virtual press conference yesterday, he clearly
stated that that Belizean law enforcement agents been aiding and
abetting border jumpers.
He said, quote,
"The public officials of this country that are clearly very much in
league with the border jumpers, that are clearly very much
complicit in the kind of dangerous illegal activity that has, by
and large, resulted in this new and deeper crisis that we're now
experiencing."
End quote.
Today, we asked both the CEO in the Ministry of National Security and
the Commissioner of Police about the PM's comment. Here's what ComPol
had to say about during a press encounter this evening:
Reporter
"I have to ask straight up; do you think police officers are involved in
what the Prime Minister has described?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I'm not going to go into specifics, but the Prime Minister knows exactly
what he is speaking about and yes, from what we are seeing some members of
law enforcement are facilitating these border jumpers and contrabandist.
It's a pity you didn't all accompany us to the border at Santa Elena where
you would have seen for yourself what was happening there and we really and
truly had to put our foot down because when we got there yesterday, we saw
evidence of facilitation and we have explained to the immigration and
customs officers at the border that the game has to be changed. It cannot
be that people from the Mexican side are going to come over the bridge in
their vehicle with loose cargo and then have people from Belize go to the
area, meet them, collect the cargo and come into Belize, that foolishness
has to stop. So these are things that do put our people at risk and so we
have said to them and we're now reinforcing our presence in police and BDF
that the only cargo that are going to be allowed to come into the country
through the border at Santa Elena, are those commercial goods that comes in
the tandem or the medium size goods that come in the big trucks that the
cab cannot be removed. I do not see anything coming from out of Cabinet or
the National Oversight Committee that says that we must allow loose cargo
to come into the country. Can you imagine crossing the bridge with chips
and biscuit to bring to somebody who is going to meet you on Belize side to
collect chips and biscuit? Man for Christ sake, we are putting ourselves at
risk and our country at risk for chips and biscuit, we have to do better
than that."
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