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On Monday national security representatives from the Eastern and Southern Caribbean arrived in Belize to begin a three day study tour. The tour, which is funded by The United States Agency for International Development, will provide the regional delegates with important knowledge and strategies for crime prevention. The project is designed to reduce the main causes of youth related crime through better developed legislation. Here is the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Elodio Aragon, with more on the event...

Hon. Elodio Aragon Jr. - Minister of State, Home Affairs
"It is indeed a gratifying feeling to see that Belize was chosen as the country for this technical exchange and as the vanguard in this CariSecure project aim towards strengthening evidence based decision making for citizen security in the Caribbean. This project as I understand it to be will be implemented in 10 eastern and southern Caribbean countries with specific emphasis on the US aid priority countries of Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia. Whilst Belize was not named as one the US aid priority countries, by default it appears to be one so I must express our sincere gratitude for this display of confidence that the CariSecure and the other decision makers showed in Belize and its various criminal justice systems in choosing us to host this tour. On behalf of the government and people of Belize I say thank you.  It is my hope that the planned activities for this technical exchange tour will provide you the participants with an opportunity to pursue individual and collective development through the exchange of knowledge, skills, resources and technical expertise. The newly acquired knowledge of best practices which I anticipate the participants will gather from this technical exchange will assist in guiding those countries that may wish to establish their own crime and violence observatories."

The delegates will learn from Belize's experience in implementing USAID's best practices and strategies.