Minister of State suspended for six months…

This afternoon, the office of the Prime Minister announced that Juan Coy, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Development and Social Transformation from the Toledo West Constituency has been suspended for intervening in an incident involving uncustomed goods being brought into Belize and which reportedly ended up with Coy. The incident happened in late February and involved Gallo beers and soft drinks from Guatemala intercepted by the B.D.F. at their observation post in the deep south at Treetops. Coy secured the release of the uncustomed goods through a signed letter to the B.D.F. According to office of the P.M., Coy’s intervention “constituted a lack of judgment and could be viewed as an abuse of his ministerial position”. For this Coy has been suspended as Minister of State for a period of six months. It is not known whether Coy will be charged for uncustomed goods or if he will keep his driver and other ministerial perks during his suspension.

And while the suspended minister of state does not sit in Cabinet, he is the second to fall from grace. Last week Tuesday, Marcel Cardona was removed from Cabinet as Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture. While Cardona blamed the Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega for his ouster, the former Minister incurred the wrath of the PM over a NICH contract which he claimed was secret and had not received the transparency it required. The NICH Director, Diane Haylock, whom he sought to remove, was suspended for a month, and he was publicly embarrassed.