Foreign Minister Labels Travel Advisory for Chetumal Following Spike in Narco Violence as Unnecessary

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Francis Fonseca says that the travel advisory for Chetumal Mexico was not necessary. The Ministry issued a notice on its Facebook page on May 1 advising citizens against the increase in violent crimes in Chetumal. Last week Thursday, after his visit from Mexico, Prime Minister John Briceno said that the advisory was issued too hastily by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that there is no need for Belizeans to get too flustered over the reports in Chetumal. Fonseca weighed in on the Prime Minister’s comments.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs: “The travel advisory that we issued wasn’t so much as travel advisory it was a caution to our citizens. We really did it at the request of our National Security people. We thought it was prudent but as soon as we recognized that our friends and neighbors and our counterparts in Mexico were responding to it, that they were taking deliberate steps to address the issue in a meaningful way we felt that it was not necessary any longer so we withdrew it. So initially we felt it was important because of the national security advice that we were getting but as I said as soon as we recognized that our friends were doing everything they could to address the issue in a meaningful way we were happy to withdraw it.”