Minister of Health Frustrated with Border Jumpers

Pablo Marin

Border jumpers and contrabandistas are becoming increasingly aggressive towards law enforcement officers. Just recently, M.I.T. officers were shot at after intercepting a boat with seven male passengers in Santa Cruz Village in the north. The men were coming from Botes with contraband onions. It is a culture that authorities here are having a difficult time with since many families depend on contraband goods for their livelihoods. But the threat of COVID-19 across the border is increasing every day and as such the Ministry of National Security is doing what it can to counter border jumpers.  But the task of manning the porous border is next to  impossible so the reality is that border jumpers and contrabandistas continue to operate and can lead to a community spread of COVID-19. Minister of Health Pablo Marin today admitted that not even the amount of hospitals and clinics will be enough to respond to the spread.

Pablo Marin, Minister of Health

“I know some people do the contraband because they need. It is their means of money coming it but at this time we all have to be very cautions of what we are doing to protect the entire country of Belize. You have the entire northern area that has the river, you can have as must BDF that we have right now patrolling but there is still an area that someone will jump. Then you have Jalecte and Arenal. All those areas, Belize has a big territory for us to control and it is very impossible to control everything. I have heard rumours from Four Miles Lagoon coming from Chetumal, some others from Consejo. If you look at the map of Belize we won’t be able to control everything that is why we are beefing the Belizean people to hold on, don’t do those things. We still see the umbers increasing in Mexican side. We still see the numbers increasing in Guatemala. It is something that at the end of the day if we don’t do, or stop those illegal entries it can affect. Not even this amount of medication that we are getting would be enough. Not even the amount of hospital and clinics that we have will be enough. We are putting place but how much can we do if you are not protecting us.”