Minister Says B.D.F. Camps Are Being Upgraded, One by One

A week ago, Major Roberta Usher, the B.D.F. Chief of Staff, shared with News Five that they are working on improving the living conditions for soldiers at Fairweather Camp in Punta Gorda. This effort is part of a broader renovation plan across all B.D.F. installations. Today, News Five followed up with the Minister of National Security, Florencio Marin Junior, about these upgrades. He mentioned that it’s a work in progress and that these issues have been around since before the current administration took office. He and his deputy are tackling them one step at a time.

 

Florencio Marin, Minister of National Defense

“You all knew from the beginning of this government, we inherited deplorable conditions, no, and we didn’t complain, we didn’t cry out and all that, try to make a scandal, we quietly, Minister Mira and I quietly rolled up our sleeves and we decided to get to work and I believe over the past four years you’ve seen us one by one sometimes going to different bases and creating some form of improvement. And now you now have two barrack rooms. in Price Barracks. We’re finishing up a kitchen there. We’ve done some repairs in Riley’s camp. We’ve done repairs in Camp Belisario. But the next biggest camp is Fairweather. And what we’ve just had, I would say about a month ago, we’ve had members from CABEI who were there. We will help provide the government to some fundings to refer to rebuild some barrack room. So it is an issue for us. We are not, we ourselves are not happy for the conditions, but at the very least it is livable at the moment and we are working to improve on it.”

Deplorable Conditions at BDF’s Fairweather Camp