National Defence Strategy Discussed with Stakeholders

Felix Enriquez

Protecting Belize from attack and other dangers remains a primary concern for the Ministry of Defense.  Today, various agencies within the national security apparatus came together to discuss what will later form what is known as the National Defense and Security Strategy.  Hosted by a team of facilitators from the United States and the UK, the event was more of a brainstorming session where ideas on how to safeguard the Jewel and its citizens were being presented.  While the greatest threat seems to arise from the Belize/Guatemala dispute, C.E.O. Felix Enriquez told the media today that the respective ministries are free to share what they deem to be perilous to Belize’s national security.

Felix Enriquez, C.E.O., Ministry of Defense

“Today’s event is a stakeholders consultation meeting.  It’s a series of, it’s one in a series of meetings taking place to form what will become the National Defense and Security Strategy.  So this process has started sometime ago and what they are doing today is informing several stakeholders which includes CEOs from different ministries, heads of departments and key stakeholders within the ministries, within the NGOs as to where they are at this point with the formulation of the strategy and get input, most importantly getting input from everybody else who are the stakeholders to form what is the National Defense and Security Strategy.  The key stakeholders as to where you are at this point, setting goals and objectives as to where we want to go and then discussing how to get there.  So we have a team of facilitators which includes members from the US armed forces and the UK armed forces who are stakeholders as well in the defense strategy of Belize, assisting us, facilitating the process along with our heads of our defense and strategy people in order to get to that point.  And we have an open mind as to where we should go, there are many challenges facing Belize’s security at this time and so what will come from this is eventually a document hopefully by the end of this year or early next year that will be defense strategy of Belize.”