Coast Guard Continues Its Development

Gregory Soberanis

The Belize Police Department attracted thousands of applicants at their recent recruitment exercise.  The new intake would only accept about two hundred persons and was approved by the Ministry to strengthen the department. But what about the Belize Coast Guard, which falls under the Ministry of National Defense and Border Security?  The country’s naval defense was created back in November 2005 and is just about seven hundred strong. Coast Guard men and women are deployed around the clock patrolling the internal waters and territorial seas. Acting Commandant Gregory Soberanis told the media that they continue to work on the law enforcement agency’s professional development and don’t foresee a recruitment exercise anytime soon.

Commander Gregory Soberanis, Acting Commandant, Belize Coast Guard

“The coast guard has a strategic development plan which has been briefed to our leadership. They are very supportive of that plan and so we continue to look at ways and means of how the coastguard will grow, develop and increase its capacity to effectively execute its mandate as one, the naval defense for this country; two, in order for us to execute our humanitarian functions and three, how we can increase our capacity as it relates to law enforcement functions.”