Bz’s Foreign Minister meets w/US’s Colin Powell

Fresh off the CARICOM summit where fighting terrorism was a key point, Belize reiterated its pledge to combat crime on all levels. Belize’s Foreign Minister Assad Shoman was in Nassau, Bahamas today where he joined other foreign ministers for a meeting with the United States Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss trade and economic issues, counter terrorism and crime and security. Speaking on behalf of the CARICOM ministers, Shoman told Powell, “Last year’s independent small arms survey records the regional homicide rate for Latin America and the Caribbean, which is twice the world’s average, with over one hundred and forty thousand murders committed annually. We consider it a moral imperative for your government to seek to enact legislation to make it more difficult for people to produce and sell guns in your country, guns that often find their way to ours and kill our people.” Shoman went on to call for a revision of the development strategy towards poorer countries, which would include more money for growth initiatives. Accompanying Shoman to the Bahamas, was Ambassador Lisa Shoman.