Prime Minister Dean Barrow today returned from Costa Rica where he attended a meeting of Central American Leaders.
Those leaders, who met with Biden at the Presidential Palace in Costa Rica, pushed for a slowdown in the number of deportees. A record 80,000 Central Americans were deported from the United States in 2008 – a social burden and a criminal threat because of the members of the MS-13 gang who are being sent home. Biden warned the Central American leaders that nothing can be done about it until the Obama administration crafts a comprehensive immigration policy.
There was also concern about the drug war in Mexico and the possible effects of its spillover into neighboring countries. Biden committed to increase funding for Central America's anti-drug efforts through the Merida Initiative, from $65 million this year to $100 million in the next year.
It is not known how much of that increase Belize will qualify for, but seasoned observers fear that though Belize is one of only three countries in the Americas that border Mexico, we may again end up at the bottom of the funding chain.
