Belize, Mexico Deepen Border Crime-Fighting Partnership

Belize and Mexico are strengthening their partnership in the fight against organized crime along their shared northern border, with officials from both countries continuing to coordinate security efforts aimed at addressing cross-border criminal activity.  According to Florencio Marin Jr., Minister of National Defence and Border Security, collaboration between Belizean authorities and their Mexican counterparts has grown stronger in recent years, particularly in tackling organized crime networks that operate across the Belize–Mexico border.  Minister Marin told Love News that the partnership involves close coordination between security agencies on both sides of the border, including intelligence sharing and operational support to improve enforcement in the northern region.

Florencio Marin Jr, Minister of National Defence and Boarder Security: “At the conference I attended Mexico was not in attendance but I can speak from personal experience that we have excellent working relations with our Mexican counterparts in battling these trans national criminal networks. So I can’t speak for what happened there in Miami but I can tell you here in Belize we do have good cooperation with our Mexican neighbors.”

Reporter: Based on your intelligence, and I know you can’t divulge much information due to national security, can you indicate whether Belize has a serious threat in terms of cartel presence ? 
Florencio Marin Jr, Minister of National Defence and Boarder Security: “I think we see the news in our neighbors every day. So we take it seriously. We can’t turn a blind eye and say well this is not in our region or this is not within our borders. So yes it is something our ministry takes very seriously. So seeing it in our neighbors who are right next door I mean Quintana Roo is next door to us, it’s twenty minutes from Corozal Town. You know Guatemala is very close to us as well so seeing that these threats are affecting them is serious to us. We cannot wait for it to start rearing its ugly head in Belize and then start acting.”

Meanwhile, Belize’s Ambassador to Mexico, Oscar Arnold, also spoke with Love News about the relationship between the two countries, noting that high-level diplomatic engagements help reinforce the operational work being carried out by security forces on the ground.  Ambassador Arnold explained that regular meetings between officials from both governments ensure that strategic policy decisions align with ongoing tactical operations aimed at combating organized crime and maintaining stability along the border.

Oscar Arnold, Ambassador of Belize to Mexico: “We have an ongoing collaboration and bilateral relationship with the Mexicans that we discuss many things, migration, security, cross-border transnational crime. And so those talks are ongoing. There were separate talks to deal specifically with the incidents that were on hand. We have the security force on the Belize side talking to the relevant security forces on the Mexican side and I want to think that the operations or how the incidents were being addressed were tweaked a little bit. And that is why I believe that you’ve seen a drop, a significant drop in those incidences. Obviously, the vigilance is important to try to ensure that there’s constant monitoring. But when you put it into perspective, the bad guys only have to get it correct once while authorities have to have a 24-hour, seven days a week, 30-31 days a month vigilance to try to ensure that these things don’t happen. And they are at a very high level as well as at the operational level as well because the heads of states, the ministers can discuss, but the operations part which is 80% of it, we have to ensure that the right people are speaking to each other so that that cross-border collaboration happens and takes place. That there are border patrols that link up and that speak to each other and that sort of thing.”

Belize and Mexico have maintained long-standing cooperation on border security matters, with joint efforts focusing on issues such as organized crime, trafficking, and other transnational threats affecting communities on both sides of the border.