More Dubious Immigration Documents Circa Penner Passport Scandal

On Friday, we showed you a group of almost two hundred men and women who were granted Belizean citizenship by the Immigration and Nationality Department.  The timing of the swearing-in, eleven days ahead of the upcoming general elections, has been raising eyebrows in many quarters.  New information, however, confirm what many people had been saying; that the irregular issuance of passports was taking place even before the Penner scandal broke in September 2013 when a South Korean businessman, Kim Won Hong was issued with a Belizean passport while sitting in a jail in Taiwan. In fact, from the documents, a number of persons seemingly sidestepped an ostensibly rigorous process. We have come in possession of travel documents for at least three non-nationals from the United States and Venezuela who have received Belizean citizenship under dubious circumstances. Attorney Arthur Saldivar, who after the Penner scandal obtained a throve of immigration documents, says the bypassing of requirements is unlawful.

Arthur Saldivar

Arthur Saldivar, Attorney

“It’s not only an anomaly Isani, it’s an illegality in that the process for becoming a Belizean citizen is two-phased.  The first phase is that you spend five years continuously in the country before you become a permanent resident and once you achieve permanent resident status it’s another five years before you become a citizen of Belize.  Now the three individuals whose documents I‘ve provided you with they all came in on visitors visas in the same year that they were granted citizenship and their passport.  So, the question is raised as to what made them special.  Why is it that the law was circumvented to benefit them?  And the other question is, how did they pass the test established by Minister Godwin Hulse?  And the reason why I asked how did they pass that test is because, as you would see in a couple of those documents, the minister signs himself on the nationality certificate.”

Isani Cayetano

“Is there a, what should I say, a profile of these individuals?  Is there anything that‘s known about these men?”

Arthur Saldivar

“No.  Isani, listen I just got hold of these documents today through some fortuitous circumstances brought to me and I looked at them, saw them for what they and passed them on to the media for you to ask the questions.”