Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"We have done our best to try to contain it. Every country in Central America has been treated with sterile flies. They have dispersed sterile flies in every single country of Central America, including Mexico, which is a part of North America. Belize is the only country that has not benefited from the dispersal of sterile flies. We've written to USDA AFIS, and asked them to disperse flies because we are trying to contain the spread, but they have not responded to us favorably. They have said no, they cannot at this time. Mexico is supporting Belize, OIRSA is supporting Belize, asking them to disperse flies in Belize, and they have not responded to us favorably, which is very unfortunate and very discouraging because we are doing. everything on the ground to contain it. We're using our resources, the ministry's resources, OIRSA's resources, Baha's resources, Ika's resources to fight it on the ground. But I don't know how long we can hold up if they don't disperse flies in Belize. With what the cases we have in Belize, which are contained in one specific location, we would need nothing more than a million flies. The plant is dispersing a hundred million flies a week. We are saying give us a million flies are able to control it, but they have not responded to our request favorably, which is very disappointing."