Belize Defense Force and Belize Coast Guard receive new vehicles from the Ministry of National Defense and Border Security.

The Government of Belize hopes to bolster the capabilities of the Belize Defense Force (BDF) and the Belize Coast Guard (BCG) through the handing over of two new vehicles. On Saturday, the Ministry of National Defense and Border Security delivered the pickup trucks valued at fifty thousand dollars each to the security forces for administrative use. Both organizations, much like the Belize Police Department, are in need of new vehicles. Last week, Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa, and the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, stated that the police’s fleet of vehicles will soon get an upgrade.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “Just today somebody was commenting to me and commending that all they’re seeing is brand new police vehicles everywhere so I guess they haven’t reached San Ignacio yet COMPOL so we need to do something about that. But yes last year we got a fleet of twenty four I think, there are about six of them still have not come yet from Ford. We got another donation from CABEI close to forty vehicles so we do have to look at our deployment of those vehicles and ensure that San Ignacio, Santa Elena gets their fair share of the updated vehicles.”

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Let me say that San Ignacio recently received three brand new vehicles. They got a Nissan Frontier, a Ford Ranger and a Toyota Hilux. In addition to that they also got a semi brand new vehicles from the Spanish Lookout Community, a Mazda pickup truck. So I don’t understand why police vehicles in San Ignacio would be without tail lights. Well even across the country Ms.Annison will tell you in my conference I’ve always said to the commanders make sure that the vehicles are well in order in terms of having the lights etc. But again sometimes we have to learn to give and take. Let’s say the police vehicle light stops working around six o’clock in the evening do you want the police to park that vehicle the whole night and not do any patrol than to see them patrolling with the vehicle with one tail light not working. And you can’t compare it to the ordinary public we have to differentiate. The police is providing and essential service. The presence of the police in your community is more important than a tail light. So we have to strike the balance.”

The acquisition of the new vehicles is a part of the ministry’s continuing efforts to support both institutions with transportation and infrastructure.