72 new citizens sworn in

Mention the word passport and it’s usually preceded by the word “illegal”. But believe it or not, Belmopan does occasionally grant citizenship to those foreign nationals who actually deserve it. On Wednesday, seventy-two such new Belizeans took the oath of allegiance in a ceremony held at the Belmopan Convention Hotel. The oath was administered by Justice Troadio Gonzales and guest speaker was Ombudsman Paul Rodriguez. This latest group includes seventeen Salvadorans, sixteen Guatemalans, eight U.S. citizens, six Taiwanese, five Mexicans, five Hondurans, four Jamaicans, three Chinese, and one each from Nicaragua, Denmark, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

And while these Belizeans did it the right way, the dozens or hundreds or perhaps thousands who purchased their nationality under the table from well connected criminals are still out there somewhere. Also out there somewhere are the two men charged with doing the dirty work. Accused forgers and money launderers Gabby Affif and Hassan Al Sayed are still on the lam and believed to be cooling their heels in Lebanon while their lawyers seek ways to have the charges reduced or thrown out. The much-ballyhooed investigation into the passport scandal, which is alleged to have lasted over a year, has so far netted only one warm body–and that is the administrative assistant of well-known immigration agent Jose Shoman. As for the then director and staff of the Immigration Department that actually processed the illegal passports, not a single public officer has been disciplined, let alone prosecuted.