B.D.F. soldiers will stay on city streets
And while the B.D.F. may be upgrading its logistical and technological skills, the fact remains that a significant portion of our army is on patrol, not in the jungle, but on the streets of Belize City. According to the Minister of Defence, while that is not where they ought to be, given the situation on the ground, the men in green and their M-16s will be around the old capital for a while.
Godfrey Smith, Minister of Defence
“No decision has been taken as far as I am aware to say that it?s permanent, but certainly we think that the combination, it’s not the ideal situation. Ideally we would want for the military to not be involved in law enforcement affairs, but that’s the ideal. And in the meantime we have to deal with realities on the ground, and we believe that so far it has worked fairly well. We think it boosts the patrols, we think it helps as somewhat of a deterrent.”
Patrick Jones
“And how does that affect our ability to patrol our borders?”
Godfrey Smith
“We think that the established strength of the Belize Defence Force is of such a degree that we can adequately still patrol the borders. I said adequately, but again bear in mind that the extensiveness of the border and the density of the jungle terrain and so on, I would never stand before you and say that even if we double the strength we would be able to contain all illegal settlements or prevent any illicit movements of goods across the border. That’s just the nature of a border like ours.”
According to police press officer G. Michael Reid, the B.D.F. soldiers function only in a supporting role and act on directives from leaders of police patrol groups. On September tenth last year, twenty-one year old B.D.F. Private Giovanni Gutierrez shot to death twenty-one year old Aaron Mariano while on patrol on New Road. Gutierrez has been charged with manslaughter and his case is yet to be tried. Despite an eyewitness account that a police officer gave the order to fire, no one else has been charge in Mariano’s death.
