Florencio Marin Sr. Talks About His Tenure as Special Advisor

Former Belizean politician Florencio Marin Sr. completed his one-year term as special advisor to stakeholders of the country’s sugar industry on Tuesday, February 28. Despite public criticism of his appointment, the Government of Belize defended the decision, citing Marin’s extensive experience makes him the most appropriate candidate to undertake this task. Today, Marin spoke about his contributions to the industry, including recommendations given to aid in the strengthening of the relationships between millers and growers. But, Marin says despite his advice, the results are nothing to boast about.

Florencio Marin Senior, Former Politician: “Well if you know the meaning of the word advise an advisor is not one that executes policy an advisor advises so the interested party can either take up the advise or just ignore it, it has no force of action like an executive post it is not an executive post. I tried my best. We met with the chairman several times, we discussed the issues as I saw it and both of us exchanged views and we believe there were small improvements no big deal to boast about but the seed is planted as I said to focus on increasing yields per acre that will benefit the country, benefit the farmer, benefit the manufacturer in that they will be getting more cane for their mill. I have always been supportive of a free society and Belize is a free society and the cane farmers associations is alo a voluntary and free society and they are the ones that choose the path that they want to travel. I respect the path they have chosen, I might not agree with it but as my fellow Belizeans you use the word stubbornness I won’t use the word stubborn maybe there are leaders with strong convictions within their ranks and maybe they are the ones that are calling the shots in there. I can only wish them good luck. As long as they sit down with BSI/ASR and negotiate there is a good chance that at the end of the day they will strike a deal and sign a commercial agreement.”