BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Aug. 6, 2020– The House of Representatives met once again on Monday, August 3, 2020 to debate a number of bills and motions — specifically, the bill for the extension of the State of Emergency (SOE) on the Southside of Belize City, as well as an act relating to immigration into Belize, an act regarding hotels and tourism, an act relating to quarantine measures and the act regarding electronic transactions for the development of legal and business infrastructure.

The day’s debates began on the topic of extending the State of Emergency on the Southside for an additional sixty days. This debate stretched across most of the House meeting, and became very contentious when it was suggested that the SOE is a result of the failure of the UDP government over the past twelve years to provide access to jobs and educational opportunities. Hon. Francis Fonseca was the first to speak on the matter, stating that it is the Government’s fundamental duty to “jealously guard” the fundamental rights of the people, and enacting a State of Emergency is something to be done sparingly and not as a measure to fight crime.

It was Hon. Wilfred Elrington’s words, however, that flared up passions from the likes of Hon. Julius Espat, Hon. Michael Finnegan and Hon. Patrick Faber. Rather than defend the motion to extend the SOE, Elrington lamented on the fact that the young ones who are committing criminal acts were not adequately cared for by the government during those young offenders’ formative years, hence the government had failed them.

“… they are our children and they are the children that we had a responsibility to look after and to care for and to ensure that they would not become curses to us rather than blessings … States of Emergency cannot be the norm; it has to be the exception, as the Minister from Freetown was pointing out. And states of emergency is not going to get rid of the problem … I have not seen, Madam Speaker, any proposal or project come forward to treat the real root cause of the problem. The root cause of the problem is poverty. The root cause of the problem is ignorance. The root cause of the problem is absence of capacity … it has to be some failure on the part of government, because it is our responsibility to make sure that those children are well cared for and looked after … the average Belizean boy and the average Belizean girl can’t come up with fifty cents as we speak. Can’t find jobs. Don’t have skills, can’t read, can’t write, can’t compute after thirty seven years of independence. Clearly we have failed them,” Elrington said.

Following Elrington’s remarks, the area rep for Cayo South, Hon. Julius Espat, quickly took the podium, not to commend the honorable representative for Pickstock for his words, but to condemn him for his “hypocrisy”:

“Now because you noh wahn run again you wahn try paint this whole pikcha as to what should have been done, when we all know that the reason the crime is in the south side is because there is no opportunity given to the residents there. The same residents that voted these gentlemen in to protect them and to serve them, Madam Speaker … What a shame! What hypocrisy! And now they are coming with a draconian proposal after they’ve sit down with the drug dealers and cut deals with them and paid them … he was there, collective agreement. Every decision that was made there he has to subscribe to it or he would have been able to walk out as an honorable man. It is a façade. It is hypocrisy at its highest,” said Espat.

Subsequently, the representatives for Collet and for Mesopotamia, Hon. Patrick Faber and Hon. Michael Finnegan, rose to defend the UDP government’s actions over the past twelve years. Hon. Finnegan asserted that rampant crime is not specific to Belize and that the Government is doing their best with the resources they have, and that includes the initiatives that were undertaken by Hon. Elrington (specifically the Samuel Haynes Institute), which were aimed at helping the poor, but were not successful in solving the problem. Hon. Faber then chimed in to debate the notion that it is the government that failed the people:

“What they will not mention on the other side is that Belize is also smack in the middle of the largest drug trade in the world. They will not tell you that our people are in problems because of this, and this is what causes much of the crime as it relates to gangs, as it relates to the murders in Belize City. Many of them are drug and gang-related, Madam Speaker. They will not mention that Belize is the closest country in terms of proximity to the good ol’ United States that originated all of these issues with gangs. How is it that you blame the Southside representatives? But they do this, Madam Speaker, because it is a direct attack on – and it’s smart for them politically — they want to get inside of the love that exists between the representatives of the Southside and the people of those Southside constituencies,” remarked Faber.

Following this discussion and an intermission, three other bills were discussed: the Bill for an act to amend the Immigration Act, the Bill for an Act to amend the Hotels and Tourist Accommodations Act, and the Bill for an act to amend the Quarantine Act. These three were reviewed in quick succession, and led to a discussion about the reopening of the Philip Goldson International Airport (PGIA), which was scheduled to take place on August 15, but which has, since the House of Reps meeting on Monday, been postponed due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.

During the discussion there was an exchange of name-calling and finger-pointing between both sides of the House, especially between the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Caribbean Shores area representative, Hon. Kareem Musa. Musa opened his argument by highlighting the many questions that the bill leaves unanswered in regards to how incoming tourists will be monitored once they arrive in Belize:

“Madam Speaker, this bill (for an act to amend the Immigration Act) must be read along with two other pieces of legislation being passed today, that being the Quarantine Act and the Hotel and Tourist Accommodation Act. All three pieces of legislation actually have to deal with getting ourselves prepared for the, what now seems to be inevitable reopening of the PGIA on the 15th of August 2020 … I believe this piece of legislation (Section II, B5) falls short in terms of setting out the procedure of how it is that our immigration department will deal with a foreigner once he has landed because what it says here is that he will be refused leave to land. But we know in a very practical sense, the plane would have already landed in Belize. The individual would have already presented themselves at the Immigration front desk and it wouldn’t be until that point that they inform that they don’t want to take the medical test. And so the question arises, what happens then? Is it that the airline would accept that passenger to go back? What about the scenario if the return flight to America is booked up and there are no seats to take that passenger who has refused to comply with legislation and take the medical test? Is it that we’re going to quarantine them for the night at the PGIA or a hotel? And at whose expense?” questioned Musa.

Again Hon. Patrick Faber rose in defense of the motion, and he also invited the Leader of the Opposition to share his true feelings on the matter, given that he had previously been “clamoring” for the PGIA to be opened on July 1. Hon. Briceño conceded that he had in fact wanted to reopen the PGIA, but at a time when the COVID-19 crisis was not so severe in the US:

“I agree with what the honorable member from Caribbean Shores mentioned a few moments ago. Yes, I was in full support of opening up the airport on July the 1st. But at that time we did not have the crisis in the United States that we have today … I was in favor of opening because I thought then, as I believe now, that it was the right thing to do. The Honorable member from Caribbean Shores is not saying not to open the airport, you know. That’s your problem. That’s not what he said. He was saying, why are we concentrating only on bringing Americans into this country when right now we have a massive problem with COVID-19 in the United States? What the honorable member from Caribbean Shores was saying, and I agree with him, is that we should be looking at other areas and other places. Bring people from Canada. Bring people from Europe … what the honorable member of Caribbean Shores is doing, is trying to show you these deficiencies, Wanna-be Prime Minister … we all understand that we have to open up the country sooner or later,” Briceño retorted.

The Prime Minister also had his own sentiments regarding the reopening of the PGIA and the comments made by Hon. Kareem Musa:

“It is simple and facile on his part to suggest that the Immigration amendment doesn’t go far enough and that it displays some huge omissions because there are no provisions made for what happens if somebody is refused permission to enter. First of all, you must know, that is not something that is unusual, you know. The Minister will tell you, immigration officers refuse people permission to enter all the time! You expose your nakedness. Your slip is showing. That is nothing so unusual. They have their protocols for how you deal with somebody, to how you refuse entry to land … he’s playing the fool. Again he’s being dishonest. He’s trying to come here and appeal to public opinion by in fact misrepresenting the facts, pretending that there are omissions when now I hear the Minister of Education say that in the committee, the tie ups were pointed out to him. So what is this? It is utterly disingenuous,” said the Prime Minister.

Ultimately, the motion to extend the SOE on the Southside was passed along with the other motions presented. As announced however, the PGIA will not be reopened on August 15 as planned and certain airlines have been contacted by the GOB to reschedule a resumption of their flights to Belize until September 3.