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Courtney Menzies was at the flag raising ceremony today and has this story.

Twenty four years ago, the first flags were flown on the roundabout where Freetown fans out into Central American Boulevard and the Phillip Goldson highway. And those flags weren't just Belizean - they represented countries from both the Central American and the Caribbean regions.

But over time, those flags were taken down and the Belizean flag was the only one waving in the wind, except in times of a hurricane and for 16 days of activism.

Today though, the Flag Monument has returned to its roots:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"This monument was originally created to honor the vibrant and diverse ties that Belize shares with our Caribbean and Central American neighbors. Positioned here in the heart of Belize City, it symbolizes our warm connections and shared goals. It is a key reminder of Belize's geopolitical distinctiveness as the only English speaking country in Central America and the only Central American state to also be a part of the Caribbean Community."

"Over the years, it may have been easy to pass by without a second glance, except during September when we adorned each pole with our national flag. But today we renew its importance."

But being a part of both CARICOM and SICA has more significance than just flags. It should represent a pathway to broader trade markets, investment, and economic and political development. However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs conceded that there has been an imbalance:

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"The question has always been how meaningful is that membership and what benefits has Belize reaped by being a member of these organizations. And I think for the most part, the benefit we have reaped, particularly through CARICOM has been political, to be very honest about it, because of their strong commitment to Belize's self-government, to Belize's independence, to Belize's territorial integrity to our right to self-determination, CARICOM has been a seamless block of support in terms of that effort for Belize. Political development has been really the priority for many years. Now, I think over the past decade or so, there has been a renewed effort on Belize's part to look at economic development, how can we benefit economically from these regional organizations and that's where I think we have a real opportunity and we've been working very aggressively on that issue over the past few years here in Belize."

And Fonseca also offered that there was a lack in engagement with SICA prior to the PUP administration, which he said could have been caused by the language barrier. However, there is a distance barrier with CARICOM which should encourage increase trade with Central America.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"In terms of Central America, those barriers don't exist and we need to explore these opportunities for trade and investment much more aggressively, much more meaningfully, that's why we're working very hard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, we're working to make sure Belize joins these regional organizations like SIECA, which is like the economic arm of SICA and other organizations that will allow us to be at the table to engage in meaningful discussions about economic trade and investment."

"We're looking at, of course agriculture is key, these markets are big, for example, Guatemala we have 17 million people. In terms of chicken and beef, poultry and beef, markets for our grains, markets as well in terms of tourism. We're always looking at these countries, we don't get enough tourists from Central America, they don't know enough about Belize, so we've had discussions about those two critical areas, tourism and agriculture. And we hope that we will see a change in terms of that level of travel to Belize."

In September, the flags will be switched out for Belizean ones.