And while achieving this took a great deal of executive, regulatory and parliamentary effort - with dozens of pieces of legislation - really, what is it all in service of? The orthodoxy of the global financial system imposes these demands on Belize - and we're forced to comply. But - in so doing - are we idolizing the orthodoxy? We asked the Minister of State today:
Jules Vasquez
"Do you ever reflect and say what really counter financing in terrorism? What really are we talking about? Do you ever feel that we have been forced to pursue a false idol?"
Chris Coye, Min. of State, Ministry of Finance
"Obviously, our goal is to develop the country, the economy, enable the accumulation of wealth for all our citizens."
"But to get there, we have to enable the economy. We've been highly reactive in the past and where did that get us? We became the subject of severe de-risking. We lost most of our corresponding relationships."
"What would have happened if we lost all? Is that a scenario that we want to continue to pursue? Or do we need to change our approach? So when you look at what is it, how do we get to achieve the objectives of development that we want to achieve, we have to look at that framework, that international framework, and how we can work successfully within that framework."
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