Prime Minister Briceno speaks exclusively to Love News on his meeting with US Secretary of State 

Prime Minister John Briceño is leading Belize’s delegation at the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM in St. Kitts and Nevis, where today he participated in a series of high-level discussions, including a brief engagement with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.  On the margins of the regional summit, Prime Minister Briceño spoke exclusively with Love News shortly after concluding a session focused on regional priorities such as security and food resilience.  He confirmed that his interaction with Secretary Rubio touched on matters of mutual concern between Belize, the Caribbean, and the United States, particularly the fight against transnational crime.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “The real work started this morning, while we started to discuss issues pertaining to CARICOM. But the big meeting has been with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who came in just around 12:30 and both of them gave a short address to CARICOM and talking about the importance from Secretary Rubio’s perspective the importance that the Trump administration is giving to the region and that they believe that they need to give more importance to both CARICOM and Latin America and that is why he’s here representing President Trump. I took also the opportunity to talk about transnational crime and I said that Belize is the most vulnerable country in CARICOM because we border Mexico and we have these cartels we saw what happened last week when the head of a cartel was killed and the reaction and the violence that took place all over the country. I mentioned that we have the Kaborka Cartel that is now in the Quintana Roo area and close to our border. We thanked the U.S. for the cooperation that we have with them when it comes to security matters but we need more help. We need more help with equipment. We need more help with intelligence and also training. As I mentioned to Secretary Rubio, it is easier to be able to give us the help to keep these cartels out of Belize now and not five or ten years later that these cartels are in Belize and then to try to get them out which will be extremely difficult for a small country of 400,000 people with limited resources.”

Briceño noted that regional leaders also held frank discussions regarding the situation in Cuba and its broader implications for the Caribbean community.  

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “When it comes to the issue of Cuba, I think for us it was important for Belize the point out that whilst   Secretary Rubio is saying that change must come to Cuba we said most of us in CARICOM felt that if that change that was coming has to be done orderly. But most importantly at this moment we need to find a way to be able to get humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people. And so that was a part of the discussion that we had.”

Beyond security and Cuba, the Prime Minister said the CARICOM meeting is advancing dialogue on several other priority areas affecting member states.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “At two o’clock we had a meeting that lasted a little over an hour and we talked issues of migration, issues of security cooperation. Also of course we talked about security matters including Venezuela and Cuba and regional cooperation. All of them that are very, very important for us.”

Prime Minister Briceño’s participation comes as regional leaders continue deliberations in St. Kitts and Nevis, with a strong focus on security cooperation, economic resilience, and food security across the Caribbean.  Love News will continue to follow Belize’s engagement at the CARICOM summit.