Belizean Coast Guard hits the high seas

For a time it seemed dead in the water, but late this afternoon law enforcement officials gathered on Marine Parade in Belize City to officially inaugurate the Belizean Coastguard. Pooling resources from the ranks of the Belize Police Department, the B.D.F. Maritime Wing, the Customs and Excise Department, the Immigration Department, and the Port Authority, fifty-eight men and women stood at attention today, flanked by members of the crew of the Gentian, an American vessel with staff which includes personnel from the navies of Barbados, Bahamas, and the United States. According to Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Alan Usher, while the new guard features plenty of familiar faces, with international support and training, the country’s coastguard will play a prominent role in protecting our natural resources and is fully equipped to curb crime on the high seas. This afternoon Usher told us that today marks the end of phase one and the beginning of the real work.

Alan Usher, C.E.O., Ministry of Home Affairs
?Phase two is the initial operational phase and we looked at developing our fleet of basically small boats, the thirty-nine footers you see out there, and there is one forty-five footer using basic two stroke outboard engine technology. With these seven boats and indeed a few more, we reckon we need about ten so that two could always be being refitted, two complete refitted and the rest deployed at several bases. We hope to control and manage our sea spaces out to the territorial seas, which is twelve beyond the baseline, roughly twice the land space as sea space. Phase three, which is the extended operations, we hope to project enforcement out into the exclusive economic zone which extends about two hundred miles from the mainland.?

?All the boats will be fitted with radar, which is surface surveillance radar, global positioning system navigation equipment, as well as several communication means. About last year, we inaugurated a very specialized communication system for maritime that is used also by the B.D.F., the Port and Police, but specifically, as part of the support for this project. So we will be able to have really clean voice and data communication op to eighty nautical miles out to sea.?

During today’s ceremonies, the United States government, a key financial supporter of the Belizean Coast Guard, handed over the keys to a Stinger craft, the second donation of its kind for the year. Most of the vessels in the guard are refurnished Columbian vessels abandoned or seized during drug operations in Belizean waters.