Guatemalan Teens Wanted Jobs, Forgot Passports

Rodolfo Cou

A trio of Guatemalan teenagers can expect a longer stay in Belize after illegally crossing the border on Monday morning. They were detained at the Novelos’ Bus Terminal in Belize City after failing to present any immigration documents to prove their status. Nineteen-year-old Rodolfo Cou; twenty-two-year-old Edwin Rene Genis Rax, and eighteen-year-old William Damian Mendez Hernandez, all residents of Morales, Izabal, Guatemala, pleaded guilty to failing to present a visitor’s permit. They told the court that they had entered only on Tuesday morning, January twenty-third, and planned to go back home the same day.

William Damian Hernandez

But they had told Immigration personnel that they had come into Belize on Monday, January twenty-second, and were headed to Mexico seeking employment. Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford issued fines of a thousand dollars each to be paid immediately. In default, each will serve six months at the Central Prison and then be sent back home.