The Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) is one of the most controversial accords Belize has signed as it seeks, largely, to protect the interests of united states security forces, and critics say, it isn't afraid to run over the guarantees of the Belizean constitution to do so. Well now, Cabinet has decided to put the M-Lat provisions into domestic law.
The bill will be passed at the next sitting of the National Assembly. This has become necessary after the recently derailed Fulton case where Belize's Financial Intelligence Unit was trying to shut down the Caribsports Gaming operation for the United States Department of Justice using the M-Lat, but found that they had no legal authority to do so. With M-Lat now in the law books, that legal slip would no longer be possible.