And the Commander of the BDF also gave remarks at the event. However, six years ago, the force was stained by numerous allegations of sexual assault against female officers. Velasquez explained that they have undergone measures to drastically reduce those incidents.
Brig. Gen. Anthony Velasquez, Commander - BDF
"Well, first of all, I'd like to address the problem right now. I like to describe it as a wicked problem. It's a problem that is, embedded in society and will not go away overnight. And just as a part of the society, the Belize Defense Force reflects that, we have had issues and we may continue to have issues, but I can reassure the people of police officers are very minimized at this point in time."
Reporter
"In the past the force was stained or marred by reports of abuse within training, Neglecting the concerns of its women. How would you describe the state of those issues currently and what has been done to effectively address those?"
Brig. Gen. Anthony Velasquez, Commander - BDF
"We have adopted a policy where we empower women, especially to report and to have these cases come up. They either go through he civil police if they wish or they do all anonymous type of reporting where perpetrators are dealt with any which way you can think about it. So the policy works. I have seen firsthand how it works because I've been participating in the administrative process of implementing the policy, and I can guarantee today's day that the situation is completely different in the Belize Defense Force for women. I'm not saying that the problem has been eliminated completely. It is a completely different culture in the Belize Defense Force in how we treat our women."
He added that over the past year, he is only aware of one report of sexual assault.
