The GOB has participated in exercises involving our maritime counternarcotics agreement. The USG made considerable progress on the negotiation of an overflight amendment to the shiprider agreement. Implementation of the treaty will begin in 1997, pending ratification by both sides. The GOB actively cooperates with and encourages USG aerial reconnaissance mission. These are followed by manual eradication of marijuana fields and seedlings which it views as more effective, and more environmentally sound.
Indications are that the level of marijuana cultivation has remained stable.
Although authorities destroyed thousands of plants in various operations, they made no arrests. The workstations are linked to a central coordinating center in Belmopan. At a JICC managers conference in Santo Domingo, Belize was cited as a model for JICC operations throughout the Caribbean. The aircraft carried 386 kgs of cocaine and was tracked with the assistance of USG law enforcement officials. No convictions were obtained in this case, however, owing to mismanaged investigations and the destruction of files in a mysterious police car fire.