Caracol Road Paused

And speaking of disaster, we turn now to the financial disaster that the COVID pandemic has caused for Belize. It meant massive amounts of debt and a serious lack of funds for a country that's buckling under societal and infrastructural demands, but how to choose?

Well, that's just what the Minister of Infrastructure and development brought up yesterday when he suggested asking The OPEC Fund For International Development, whether the loan secured for the Upgrade of phase 3 the Caracol road could be used for something else.

"The Caracol road was broken down into various phases, the first phase was from the junction of Georgeville all the way around to San Antonio and bring back to Santa Elena. There is no concern with that, that will continue. There is a second phase that goes from the junction to Blancaneaux Lodge, that will also continue, there is a 3rd phase that goes from Blancaneaux Lodge all the way to the Caracol ruin, that contract was not awarded, meaning we didn't stop it but it was never awarded and that is in the hands of cabinet at the moment for cabinet to decide if that is a priority for the country under this economic situation that we're in and under the COVID reality that we are facing. It is my hope that we convince the lending institution that it is not a priority and that we can renegotiate to have that sum of money utilized where it is more needed. As you are aware, after the storms that passed through our national infrastructure road way is in a horrible situation and I believe that is priority at this point in time but we are a democracy and in a democracy it is not my decision to make, cabinet sets policy and one of many members of cabinet and so cabinet will have to decide in their wisdom what is priority. I can say though that the mandate given us to us and our manifesto that we proposed before the general election was to make sure that we backed up the agro-productive sector of this country. Apart from maintaining our existing highways, the emphasis will definitely be put on our farm roads."

Upgrades to the Caracol road are set to include the conversion of 26.4 miles of current gravel to an all-weather paved road. It's also meant to see the construction of five double lane concrete bridges, and the upgrade of access roads to Caracol from Santa Elena and Georgeville.

Channel 7