EDITORIAL The Reporter

By Harry Lawrence - Publisher
Discovery of a damaged drug plane - a twin engine Beechcraft turboprop aircraft on the Southern Highway carrying 80 bales of cocaine (about two tons) helps us to understand the strength and flexibility of the drug smuggling cartel operating here and the vulnerability of a small country like Belize.

On April 6 this year another drug plane on a run that had to be aborted plunged into the shallow waters off Lighthouse reef atoll.

Belize law enforcement authorities went to the area to inspect the plane and made arrangements for salvage equipment to retrieve it in the days that followed.

But two days later, when the police and Coast Guard arrived ready to get to work, they could not find the plane! It had been recovered and removed overnight to a safe place with all its cargo. It was an impressive salvage operation, carried out by the drug cartel in the dead of night, leaving our police department looking flat-footed and dim-witted.

The latest drug plane saga also tells us something about the way the cartel works. It has been able to reach deep inside our Police Department and corrupt some of our policemen. So now we know that the drug barons are not only wealthy and resourceful. They also have a working alliance with the police!

In nearly three years of effort, the UDP Government has not been able to weed out corrupt police officials, and it has not been able to take out corrupt immigration officers either. These failures are significant, because when the next general elections roll around in 2012 or 2013, voters will be reminded of these failures and there will be a price to pay.

Voters will ask how effective the Minister of National Security has been in fighting crime and people trafficking. If voters conclude that the Ministry of National Security has not done enough to safeguard Belize's national security, they may not only reject the Minister; they will also blame the government and its administration.

Already the enemies of the government are exploiting the weakness in the UDP armour, its Achilles Heel in the Ministry of National Security. They are effectively using this weakness to keep the government off-balance and on the defensive.

We see it in the strategy of the drug cartel, shifting trafficking routes from Corozal & Orange Walk > Mexico, to Toledo & Stann Creek > Guatemala.

We see it in the proliferation of guns and the heightened activity of street gangs. We see it in the clandestine efforts to disrupt trade, such as the deliberate destruction of marker bouys which identify the channel for tourist and commercial shipping.

The destruction of navigation bouys is especially revealing because this activity is undiguised sabotage, of no benefit to anyone except to those working to bring down the government by illegal means.

The Government of Prime Minister Barrow may not fully realize it, but it is already locked in mortal combat with some sinister and powerful forces arrayed against it. At a time like this Belize has urgent need of strong political and moral leadership, capable of incisive thinking and tough choices.

The country needs this leadership, not only from Prime Minister Barrow, but from every member of his government team.