Have you ever heard of places like Rio Blanco, Treetops, Cadenas or Modesto Mendez? Chances are if you aren’t in the BDF or don't have a family member who is, you haven't. These are the observation posts along Belize border - or adjacency zone with Guatemala. And even if you are in the BDF, those are not happy places to hear discussed, because the living at these observation posts is rugged, tense, and restless while the accommodations are spartan and the provisions stingy.
It's the life of a soldier who walks the line, and on Thursday two Belize Rural Area Representatives Edmund Castro from the North and Michael Hutchinson from Central visited four border outposts with the BDF Commander Dario Tapia. Going from north to south, the posts are Rio Blanco, Santa Rosa, Tree Tops and Cardenas which overlooks a major Guatemalan highway and adjoins the Modesto Mendez Guatemalan Military Base. They traveled by British helicopter and a government videographer accompanied them. They said they found that life on the line is hard as nails.
Hon. Edmund Castro, Belize Rural North Area Rep.
“We as a part of the government should try to make life better for our men and women in uniforms. I think they play a key role in our security defense and I think we should give them all the assistance that we can give them.”
Hon. Mike Hutchison, Belize Rural Central Area Rep.
“To visit the lookout or observation posts that our security forces have to man and to see the kind of terrain and the obstacles that they have to overcome for them to arrive here to do a job and I would say well done. You know from time to times in the past we used to hear about incursion upon our land and the xateros. We can sit and watch our big screen television wherever you are in Belize and criticize and say what our boys are doing, what is happening out there. But until you come and get a firsthand view, until you come and see the terrain, the accommodations, then you can see the reason why.”
Brig. Gen. Dario Tapia, BDF Commander
“To get a feel of the force, to understand what the force does, and to go on the ground, so that they could better understand what our soldiers go about doing in their daily life and we want to believe that they would appreciate what these soldiers do is very hard. It is hard on them, it is difficult terrain, the infrastructure needs a lot of work and so it is a good way to have people from the executive to be able to see what the soldiers, the Belizean soldier does in his daily life.”
We assume Castro will take up that lobby for better outfitting of the armed forces with his Cabinet colleague Carlos Perdomo.
