The Belize Network of NGO's is doing its own awareness campaign on the 13th amendment. Today, that umbrella group posted an interview with human rights attorney Leslie Mendez to - as they put it - "unpack the risks, the rights, and the road ahead."
Here's a small portion of that:
Leslie Mendez, Attorney At Law
"But there must be a reason why so many people are trying to ring the alarm with this, even if it just sparks a curiosity in you and you explore it, and if at the end of the day you still say yes, then you are a yes. But I want the yes to be an informed yes and a yes that says yes I am willing to sacrifice my rights in the event that there is crime, and I say my rights, not the rights of other people, because it might get you too. So, yes, I am willing to sacrifice my rights whenever there is an increase in violence, and allow the police because this is usually implemented by police and allow the police to use these powers against me if they saw me in sort of proximity somehow with somebody they might think is involved in gang activity, I accept to go to jail for 30 days because that is the first one, that is how long it lasts. I accept, and I accept to have very limited access to a court and if it is that I know I wasn't involved in it I accept not having the right to go to court and seek a remedy because the threshold for saying that you fell outside of the emergency powers it is a very high threshold so it is really difficult to actually get remedy I think that we have to personally say I accept that this is the risk I am willing to take."
You can see the entire interview on the BNN facebook page.
