But when he isn't the centerpiece of a documentary, Barrow's day job as the Leader of the Opposition. And today during his press briefing, he criticized the government for rising inflation. He explained that it should be a priority of the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that Belizeans can feed themselves and not be forced to rely on what's in the grocery stores. And he added that relieving poverty was a PUP manifesto promise.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"The government is not doing enough to respond adequately to this inflation problem that is persisting and also the Minister of Agriculture, I think, again he does well in promoting these flash point activities, these photo ops but what are we doing to ensure that all Belizeans can feed themselves. Farming is now, not the future, so I'd love to see the Minister of Agriculture get into all cities, towns and villages and get more people to feed themselves, so you don't have to go to the store and buy these ridiculously priced items, but until then, the government, the state has a responsibility to respond to the most vulnerable."
"The majority of society are hardworking people, laboring class, just trying to ensure that they have a basic good quality of life and this is eroding our quality of life, and it lends to all the other problems that we have, it lends to the citizen security problem that we have because our police officers are the people being impacted by inflation and they are already underpaid in my view, overworked, undervalued, and that is why you have them landing planes and involved in narco trafficking and running the narco trade, not just landing the plane and getting the product out of Belize. My understanding is that they are moving the product within the country. Again, if we paid our law enforcement more, it would serve as a deterrent to engage in illicit activities."
"Plan Belize say poverty alleviation was a key item agenda and inflation exacerbates poverty."
The most recent inflation figures show it at 6.5% in November of last year.
