Answers lacking in passport scandal

The embarrassing case of the overnight purchase of a Belizean passport by an accused Mexican drug kingpin is moving from the scandalous to the preposterous. While in Belmopan today, News 5’s Janelle Chanona stopped by the office of BECIP, the Belize Economic Citizenship Investment Programme, to get an explanation of how Carlos Moreno, now on remand at Hattieville, managed to become a Belizean barely a week before being busted for over three thousand pounds of cocaine. Not surprisingly, BECIP’s director, Joseph Belisle, declined to speak on camera. Off camera Belisle said he did not know how much the Mexican had paid for his citizenship, but did say that at the time of application Moreno met all the criteria to become a Belizean. It was only after Moreno was arrested that his citizenship was revoked for providing false information on the application. Belisle did confirm that the application, presented by passport agent Gabby Affif, was vetted and okayed, but what the BECIP director would not do, is inform us of the names of the members of the scrutinising committee who ostensibly did the vetting. Several months ago, Prime Minister Said Musa announced Cabinet’s decision to stop the sale of passports, but he never did say when. Unless the P.M. wants to wait until Osama Bin Laden buys one, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that now might be a pretty good time to pull the plug.