G.O.B. issues upbeat report on human trafficking

The Government of Belize has issued a report detailing all the efforts it has made against trafficking in persons. The report is part of an effort to get Belize off the U.S. government’s “Tier Three” list of countries not doing enough to combat the crime, which by all accounts, is not even a problem here. But the process of toeing the line mandated by the U.S. congress has Belmopan in panic mode and G.O.B. has dutifully implemented a sixty day “mini-plan” dictated by Washington. While the efforts by the Belize government, which include a major public education campaign, police action, and assistance to the largely non-existent victims, are real enough, one of the major reason behind the desire to please Uncle Sam is an upcoming major loan from the Interamerican Development Bank that is crucial to the Musa administration’s attempts to “rearrange” the nation’s foreign debt. The United States of America is the I.D.B.’s biggest contributor and has the power to veto any loan.