BDF Soldiers’ Living Conditions Addressed in House of Representatives

The quality of life for soldiers of the Belize Defense Force was a hot-button issue in this week’s meeting of the House of Representatives. Since last year the Government of Belize has been making major strides in renovating and upgrading various facilities for the soldiers including the Forward Operating Base on the Sarstoon River and Fairweather Camp in Punta Gorda. Minister of National Defence and Border Security Florencio Marin Jr. spoke on other initiatives the government is rolling out for the soldiers. 

Florencio Marin Jr, Minister of National Defense: “We have built much needed barrack rooms for our soldiers and I’m sure you saw it on television member for Collet how wonderful it is. We are currently fixing the kitchen and the dinning hall for the soldiers. That should be completed I’m hoping by the end of this year. When I went there after twenty fives years when I went there my God I couldn’t believe how run down you all had left it. I honestly couldn’t believe you did that to our soldiers and you all have left it and shame on you guys. You should have stood up for the soldiers don’t come and criticize us now, it’s then you should have talked. My God not even talking about the septic Prime Minister that thing was horrible. Maybe we should have asked you to go and smell it personally to see how you left it. We’ve had a tripartite meeting with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Public Service to resolve this issue for the soldiers and we have said we will touch no salaries until we have one full final solution. In addition to that solution Madam Speaker we are also gonna be increasing allowances that for thirteen years the soldiers couldn’t even dream of getting under that previous UDP government. Madam Speaker, under our tenure, under our time and thanks to the support of this Prime Minister and the support of our colleagues we built a proper forward operating base in Sarstoon. We didn’t do it under any pressures from anyone in the civilian world, we did it because it is the professional thing to do. We did it because it is in our national security interest. We will not be moving, making decisions on national security based on political expediency Madam Speaker and we never did, that was done properly.”

In April, the government inaugurated new dormitories at the Price Barracks in Ladyville, which were built through a 60 million Belize dollar loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).