When Belize attained its Independence in 1981, we achieved it with full sovereignty and territorial integrity. Presently our Constitution guarantees every citizen of this country certain fundamental human rights and civil liberties that no one should ever overlook or undermine.

President George W. Bush has been having a very hard time selling the concept of the “The Merida Initiative” to The United States Congress. At a summit this week between Mexico’s Calderon, Canada’s Harper and U.S President Bush in New Orleans, Bush urged the U.S. Congress to approve “the Merida Initiative”.

The Merida Initiative is a program for Mexico and Central America which would see the U.S. providing aid for military, training, advanced communications for eavesdropping, and surveillance. But the program is being criticized as one that will wind up increasing impunity, corruption, and human rights violations in the region, while missing the mark in the battle against drug-related violence

While President Bush is having a hard time convincing his congress to approve this repressive piece of legislation, it wasn’t that hard to sell it to new Prime Minister on the block, Dean Barrow.

The Administration of Prime Minister Dean Barrow appears wanting to get in the good books of Uncle Sam. If Barrow has his way, Belize will be the first in Central America to make the necessary constitutional amendments this Friday. The UDP has more than the necessary two-thirds majority in the house to make this constitutional amendment and they surely will.

This new legislation dubbed in Central America as the “Merida Initiative” is aimed at filling the gaps between Colombia and the United States converting the entire region into a police state which infringes on the human rights and civil liberties of citizens across the region, all in the name of crime prevention.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow really expects us to believe that this initiative is locally legislated and that it will curb the escalation of crime and violence that has plagued us increasingly since the UDP took office almost three months ago.

The “Preventive Crime and Detention Act of 2008” or something of the sort, is designed to eventually supersede the functions of our local judicial institutions including the extradition treaty, which as it stands now,  has to show due cause and supporting evidence before our courts allows any wanted person to be taken out our country.

This legislation is the same as that which the United States is pushing through the Congress and drawing most Central American nations to with a lot of promises but, that’s it, promises.

In Guatemala last Friday, this initiative faced heavy Opposition by civil society groups and other organization when it was debated in the Guatemalan Congress, and that is because Guatemala has the highest level of violent crime and violence in the region. In Belize, Barrow doesn’t expect that kind of concern. We are a far more passive people, plus the majority of us are supposed to still be in a “honeymoon” with the UDP.

This “Merida Initiative” according to research is really “Plan Merida”, a plan identical to “Plan Colombia” where the U.S. has actually encroached on the sovereignty of that South American nation with military operatives and special forces. It is widely speculated that they actually instigated the causes that almost exploded into an all out regional war between Colombia and Ecuador including Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The intermarrying of “Plan Colombia and “Plan Merida” will enable the U.S. to exercise control over the security forces of the entire region.

This new law would take us into a complete new, dangerous dimension. It would allow our security forces to trample on our rights and civil liberties. The police is already lacking of judicious discretion, now imagine the abuse and consequences with this new law.

Any individual, criminal or not, could be jailed for an undetermined period without charge or accusation, at the end of that specified period, they would release you only to jail you again; all in the name of crime prevention.

It’s not the first time that this type of repressive law sponsored by the U.S. surfaces. During the civil wars of Central America, military juntas used this same kind of alleged prevention technique to deal or get rid of so-called suspicious persons. This law allows wiretapping and with today’s state-of-the-art technology which could be used to edit recordings, this is a dangerous thing.

For Mexico, it might be a more attractive deal for the U.S. guarantees Mexico $500 million dollars. But for Central America, it is just a meagerly $50 million that will be shared by proportion to the size of the security forces and population. This simply means that based on the size of Belize and our security forces combined; we don’t have very much coming our way.

But for the UDP Government, the disbursement might not mean much apart from the few retrofitted boats, rifles, radios but the law itself will definitely come in handy for Barrow’s political interests and ambitions.

With such authority, Barrow will be able to use our security forces to harass political opponents, tarnishing their reputations and credibility with the view to ruin their political career.

Our crime situation needs a home-grown response with a comprehensive view to bring about a society that could live with one another, give equal opportunities to all and provide the social infrastructure and programmes that will eliminate poverty and create opportunities for the underprivileged. I recall that prior to the general elections; Dean Barrow and the UDP used to preach violence for his own convenience and often said that crime was prevalent because of the lack of integrated social programmes. While I doubt that Prime Minister Dean Barrow has any kind of real plan to fight the crime and violence, and no idea of what to do with the rising cost of living that is spiraling out of control, he is really barking up the wrong tree with this copy of the “Merida Initiative” that may just come back to haunt him in the not too distant future.

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