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And while that trip to El Salvador was successful, what about the Kenyan led mission to Haiti? The 31 BDF soldiers and 20 Coast Guardsmen returned back to Belize almost two months ago after a month-long training in Jamaica. They're still here, awaiting further instructions, and yesterday we asked the FM if that mission was D-O-A.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Belize remains committed to participating in the MSS Mission but there are some a few outstanding issues that have to be finalized. The funding, I keep making this point, the funding of the mission is critically important, all the funds have not been sourced as yet but we're glad to hear that countries are stepping up, the United States, Canada, France are all saying that they will contribute more so this is not just a Belize issue, it's CARICOM, the entire CARICOM is concerned about the mission and also of course the very important issue of the logistics, of the organization of the mission. We need to have a very clear exit strategy, we can't send our soldiers on a mission where we don't have a very clear exit strategy, what will they be doing in Haiti, we have to be very clear on that. What role will they be performing there, but we're very happy that progress has been made, CARICOM has been at the forefront of this issue, we now have in place an interim prime minister in Haiti, the transitional council is still in place so I think we're hoping that over the next few months we can see greater level of stability in Haiti and eventually a free and fair democratic elections."
