BELIZE CITY, Mon. Aug. 30, 2021– Today, the Minister of Diaspora Relations, Hon. Anthony Mahler, while being interviewed by local media, said that he was not aware of the diplomatic trip on which the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Shyne Barrow, has embarked.

When Barrow became the Opposition leader of the House of Representatives, he was given a diplomatic passport, which enabled him to do something that he had been unable to do since his deportation to Belize about a decade ago: return to the Continental US. While in the US, he has even been able to visit New York City, where he resided for many years and where his stint as a platinum-selling rap artist began.

While Shyne has said that he is on “official business” in the United States and has met with elected members of congress, and world-renowned influencers within the music industry, Minister Mahler says he was not informed of the purpose of the trip.

“I don’t know how it originated. What I can tell you is that for months now we have been organizing our own trip to the diaspora, especially the United States,” Hon. Mahler said.

Hon. Mahler noted that the diaspora encompasses persons with Belizean heritage from all over the world, and the Belizean diaspora has an instrumental part to play in the development of the country.

“I believe strongly that they have a part to play in the rebuilding of our economy with their expertise. Many of them have traveled internationally, many of them were born there, many of them acquired passports in the past and a lot of them have money as well. So, they have the expertise, they have the knowledge, they want to come back for tourism purposes, for investment purposes, and so we have to engage with them and we have to have that dialogue with them and we are going to do so on our own pace later on this month when we go to the United States,” said Minister Mahler.