Sunday, October 17, 2010
The Belize Times
BARROW'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL MOVE
(Continued from pg. 1) which Justice Legall was chosen for appointment, noting both his heavy case load (which the Judge is expected
his views on this matter of public impor tance, and has requested a prompt response from the Prime Minister on the matters raised in his
correspondence, to date, there has been no reply. Your move, Prime Minister Barrow; your move. Belizeans are waiting.
Magistrate’s Court #1 yesterday and were each charged with 2 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating the commission of an offence under immigration Act and 2 counts of forgery of an official document. They were released on bail of $5,000 each and all the defendants are to return to court on December 14. These were the officers who were on duty at the Philip Goldson International Airport on the days when three chartered flights enroute from Port au Prince, Haiti, touched down in Belize. The dates were September 18th and 19th, and October 3rd. While the police were swift to act, in an effort to save face in one of the country's most embarrassing scams of recent times, during a joint press conference on Tuesday called by the Ministers of Police and Immigration, Doug Singh Carlos Perdomo respectively, both denied any hand in the illegal activity. The Ministers said that the Embassy of Belize in Cuba has been banned from issuing visas to Chinese nationals who are suspected to travel to Belize because they then proceed to the United States. Perhaps the most startling detail of all is that while the nationalities of the passengers in question have been confused between Chinese and Japanese, it was confirmed this week that they are indeed Chinese. Some carried what authorities believe were fake Japanese passports with forged visas. As far as the immigration forms are concerned, Singh said that the officers
helped the passengers to complete the forms because of the language barrier. There were, however, key pieces of information that were missing, such as: their addresses and where their visas were "issued". Authorities believe that the officers, or some of them, forged visas numbers to help the passengers to clear immigration and that even their passports were counterfeit. What didn't create any alarm outside of the ring of officers, was that the passengers didn't fill out any customs forms because they travelled lightly and also because of the language problem. And just where did the Chinese nationals go? Well the ministers said they believe that they were picked up and shuttled north to the Princess Hotel at the Corozal Free Zone and then taken over the border the same day. Perdomo said that to avoid any type of further international collusion, he has ordered a moratorium on all visas of Chinese or non-Cuban persons who try to obtain visas from the Belize Embassy in Cuba. The Civil Aviation Department is also being questioned to determine why a chartered flight coming out of Haiti at an hour when the airport should have been closed that night, did not alarm anyone there. And while no one from Customs have been charged with any wrongdoing, they too are being investigated. The explanation the Customs Officer on duty at the time gave as to why no form was available, was that the forms were either stolen or misplaced. While the ministers sought to downplay the incidents, and make it seem
as though they are “on top of things” so to speak, the singular fact is that they may have raised more questions than provide answers. There is good reason to believe that there were more than the three chartered flights from Port au Prince, Haiti, to Belize. Since Belize rarely ever gets any visitors from Japan per year, much less per month why didn’t the sudden influx raise red flags? E ve r y o n e a n d h i s d o g a r e expecting that the investigations into the irregularities will continue with CEO Allen Whylie, while fielding questions late last week from individual media houses, said, "We are not ruling out anything. Part of the investigation will entail us seeking the assistance of Foreign Affairs and other international partners to try to get copies of whatever documents were presented at the port of departure...there is no doubt that it is suspicious but I don't want to express opinions I want to express facts and what the investigation disclose …” But now the ministers sure sounded final when they said they don’t know where and who issued visas, as though they had little intention of even trying to find out. Six relatively low level public officers are accused of masterminding and operating a sophisticated, multinational, bi-hemispheric human trafficking ring – there is no high level conspiracy here, or so Minister Singh and Minister Perdomo would have you believe. Hey guys, there is this bridge in Brooklyn …
during the transfer, the officers stopped at El Sitio De La Union in Copan and told the men to g et out where they were ordered to
lie on the road. T hey were shot and Peters and Edwards died, but Salazar, with help from villag ers in the area, made it to a hospital.
T he three men, who resided i n S a n Pe d r o, we r e b e l i e ve d t o have car ried out a number of other attacks around the countr y.
to continue at the same time), and his lack of seniority. Although, the Leader of the Opposition cites the need to present
Major immigration smuggling exposed! (Continued from pg. 1)
allegations that planes loaded with Asians were landing at Belize’s international airport, under the cover of darkness, and the human cargo was being whisked through the legal procedures and put on board vans, never to be seen again on Belizean soil. In what is no doubt the most ironic of statements, the ministers insisted that the buck stopped there. Candra, Lima, Daly and Lindsay appeared in the #1 Magistrate’s Court late Tuesday evening, October 12. Candra was charged with 10 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating the commission of an offence under the Immigration Act and 9 counts of forgery of an official document. She was released on a bail of $20,000. Lima was charged with 12 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating the commission of an offence under the Immigration Act and 12 counts of forgery of an official document. She too was released on a bail of $20,000. Daley was charged with 8 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating the commission of an offence under the Immigration Act and 9 counts of forgery of an official document. He was also released on a bail of $20,000. Lindsay was charged with 2 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating the commission of an offence under the Immigration Act and 2 counts of forgery of an official document. He was released on a bail of $5,000. Tench and Guy appeared
3
Survivor of Execution Attempt Sent Home to Face Charges
Since the March 30th Scotiabank heist and murder of KBH security guard, Stephen L o p e z i n S p a n i s h L o o ko u t , t h e t r i o o f B e n j a m i n Pe t e r s, A l e x Edwards and Gabriel Salazar ke pt a ver y low profile and then absconded to Honduras where it is thought they continued on a c r i m i n a l r a m p a g e. B u t t h r e e w e e k s a g o Pe t e r s a n d E d wa r d s we r e s h o t d e a d a f t e r H o n d u r a n police rounded them up along with Salazar just before they could pull off another one of their specialties, an ar med robber y. Somehow the trio were taken somewhere other than a Po l i c e S t a t i o n a n d P e t e r s a n d Edwards were executed. Salazar wa s a l l e g e d l y l e f t f o r d e a d b u t tended by villagers who eventually escor ted him to a precinct where h e w a s h e l d u n t i l We d n e s d a y of this week when Honduran authorities accompanied him on a flight to Belize where they handed him over to local Police. Together, the men, and others, are believed to be responsible for t h e r o b b e r y w h i ch n e t t e d t h e m over $300,000. in cash. T hey were wanted for murder and robbery for the incident, but i t i s b e l i e ve d t h a t t h e y e n t e r e d Honduras through the Agua Caliente station in Guatemala. When Police stumbled upon them, they discovered a cache of guns i n b a g s t h e y we r e c a r r y i n g a n d took them to a Police Station to be transfer red to an office of the P u b l i c M i n i s t r y. B u t s o m e t i m e