And if those tourists take in the sights on Albert Street they could be treated to the art of one Alex Sanker.
Now, Sanker has often been called a controversial figure, one who never shied away from attacking national issues.
And tonight, after what he calls a quote: "attempt to sue him for silence." we can confirm that the U.S. Embassy is looking into whether or not he's endured human rights abuses against his freedom of expression.
It all started with a press release that came out of the Embassy this morning - and a teary eyed Sanker soliloquy on Sunup on 7:
The U.S. embassy has confirmed that it did inquire into alleged human rights abuses against Alex Sanker they say quote: "The U.S. Embassy confirms that it contacted Alex Sanker in the course of doing routine data collection as a part of general query in light of its analysis for this year's congressionally mandated country report on the topic of freedom of expression in Belize."
It's an important validation, but for this artist, the pain of being threatened for what he says is his right to free expression is still very raw.
Alex Sanker - Artist
"When this is finished in the court of law, there will be no other after Narda Garcia, because my painting will not be threatened, listen I've been doing it for 24 years, I refuse you understand what I tell you, these tears are not weakness these tears are real, I just see last night on Jules show where he said many days you don't eat, you don't know where the next dollar will come from you stay your ground and I refuse for any official in this country to feel like you could jeopardize my life's work. I am ready to die for this and I will continue doing what I'm doing, you understand where I'm coming from because at the end of the day people don't know my struggle, they don't, I always remember my mom, she's dead and gone, she always say Alex listen, set your life what you want do, don't let nobody distract you from your goals. I have a standard six education and I choose to educate myself, I choose to do what I do today for this country because I love this country, and for these people to do this it's not right, the Prime Minister says he supports me well let's see that's your C.E.O. what she's doing is wrong."
While the artist has his anguish, for his part, the Prime Minister exercised his executive prerogative.
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"Well, I know nothing about the letter. I just read about it this morning on the news, but I don't want to be mean to the Americans what they should look at themselves first and the way they behave in their country before they could- if somebody writes, if I write to you about a letter because I feel that you have not depicted me fairly I think that is my right as a citizen. It has nothing to do to stop any kind of artistic interpretation of anybody. And Mr. Sanker, I fully support what he does. I think he's a great artist and if he wants to use his art to depict whatever he thinks that he sees is not going well in the country, I fully support that. But you as a citizen also have a right to be able to say, well, I don't like what you're doing, I don't think you're being fair to me. As I said, I've not seen the letter, but to the Americans I tell them, look at the mirror and look at how you all are behaving in the United States when you have a young man can go out with a rifle in a protest and shoot them because he does not agree with them and then try to use his excuse of self-defense. What the heck? Look at yourselves before you look at us."
Still, the situation of Narda vs. Sanker may not be as cut and dry as it appears. Kevin Arthurs, attorney for Narda Garcia claims it's not the art that the letter refers to but instead plainly defamatory comments that the Artist made about the C.E.O. in a December 20th, 2020 Facebook post.
So, for her, it's not the art, or the artist, but it's the messaging - still, undaunted, he continues to post:
Alex Sanker
"I post something about Narda every week you understand because I try to make an example of what not to do."
And now that the dispute has international attention, we'll keep watching this feud, fueled now by an artist's outrage.
We sought comment from C.E.O Garcia but via text, she told us that she was in meetings.
