It’s official: Parchue out at Immigration

It has been rumoured for weeks and today it was made official. Director of Immigration Colonel Peter Parchue has served his last day in that post and on Tuesday begins a new career as the number two man at NEMO. Parchue took over the Immigration Department almost two years ago following a twenty-year stint in the Belize Defence Force. His appointment at Immigration came in the wake of the worst scandal in the department’s history, when his predecessor, Paulino Castellanos, presided over the illegal sale of perhaps as many as twelve hundred Belize passports. Unfortunately for Parchue, has own name eventually became tainted, largely owing to criminal charges of embezzlement being filed against his daughter, a cashier in the department’s Belize City office. Senior Immigration officer Gareth Murillo has been appointed to act as director until further notice.