But Elrington says that if had accepted a former Gitmo prisoner like Khan, he would have asked the U.S. to help Belize save its youth from the almost inevitable pull of street crime.
Wilfred Elrington, Former Minister Of Foreign Affairs
"I would like to think, I'm sure. I would like to think that the Foreign Minister, Minister Eamon Courtenay would have said to the Americans look you know, the Belizean people are upset about this matter, I personally don't think it is going to be harmful to Belize but there are these who believe that it is going to be harmful the country and therefore Belizean would wish to have some kind of benefit, tangible benefit to be derived from agreeing to this thing or allowing it to happen and I think it would have been good if he had asked the Americans to help us to establish a national youth service corp. to focus primarily on our youth who are in fact falling into gangs, and to help us to break that cycle and normalize our citizens as they were pre-1981."
