Is Burning Down Their Structures a Solution to the Problem?

Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington

The issue of illegal settlements was raised with the Foreign Minister. His response was that Belize is likely to continue to rely on the O.A.S. to assist in the removal of the settlements. Elrington says burning down their structures is not the answer.

Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“They’ve always been coming in and settling and getting off. Under the P.U.P. administration they couldn’t do anything other than what we are doing now. You work along with the Organization of American States and I will tell you how the O.A.S. works with us to do it. They sought funding from the international friends of the region who provided funds and with those funds, they bough and in Guatemala, built homes in Guatemala and invited the people to come off. And that is how it has been handled in the past and I imagine that is how we will continue to handle it. You may want to tell me what are the options, so we go in and bulldoze them and run them off? But what will be the consequences of that? Every action has a reaction, there are consequences. When you are in a position, you are in a very different position from when you are in government; government people have to be very mature, very informed and have to behave in a very measured way. We cannot knee jerk and we cannot be belligerent particularly when you are a weak state, small weak state.”