U.S. Embassy confirms Max’s visa cancelled

He could have confronted the matter head on six months ago when the immigration scandal first came to light, but instead, the P.M. chose to administer a mere wrist slap to Minister Max Samuels, taking away his police and immigration portfolios, but keeping him in Cabinet as Minister of Transport and Communications. At the time the Prime Minister defended the decision as his and his alone.

Prime Minister Said Musa

“It is the judgment of the Prime Minister that Minister Samuels should be retained in the Cabinet. And that’s the decision I took and I am prepared to answer for that.”

Today, Said Musa paid the price for his loyalty, as the United States Embassy confirmed that it has revoked Samuels’ visa to enter the U.S.A. While the revocation of a visa has no bearing on any criminal matters, either in the U.S. or Belize, to cancel the visa of a sitting minister amounts to a stinging slap in the face of the Musa government. While the embassy would not comment on the reason for the revocation, acting Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d’affaires, Edgar Embrey, told News 5 that the matter has been under consideration for some months, and that the timing–only three weeks before election day–was entirely coincidental. “We had no intention of making any announcement,” said Embrey, who explained that the decision to respond to media enquiries was made only after the matter became public. Embrey professed no knowledge of how the information was leaked, only that under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1954, the Secretary of State or consular officer representing him has the power to revoke a visa after it is issued. News 5 understands that Samuels complied with the embassy’s request to submit his passport to have the visa invalidated. Had he not done so, bulletins would have been sent to all airlines serving Belize as well as U.S. ports of entry. We tried to solicit Samuels’ views on the matter, but were informed by a spokesman that he had no comment.