Joseph Budna Recounts Being Imprisoned for Kidnapping and Extortion in Guatemala

Joseph Budna is home safe, following a daring and successful escape from a Guatemalan prison where he was serving a twenty-five-year sentence for kidnapping and extortion.  It was his second attempt at freedom, having fled briefly from another penitentiary in 2014.  According to the Camalote resident, he crossed the western border into Belize shortly after absconding from a medical facility where he had been taken for treatment.  Budna told News Five off-record that he was escorted to the healthcare center by a single officer whom he befriended along the way.  After gaining the officer’s trust, he asked to use the restroom and his cuffs were removed before being allowed to relieve himself unsupervised.  That’s when he made a dash for freedom by slipping through a window that was partially covered by a black plastic bag.  His amazing tale of escape was recounted to the media this afternoon in an extended interview.

Joseph Budna

Joseph Budna, Escaped from Guatemalan Prison

“It feels good, you know, to be home a free man, Land of the Free, you know, Belize is the Land of the Free and thank God for that.  I think God is the one that led me to where I am today because if it was not for him, you know, I wouldn’t have been where I am today.  Joseph Budna is not a kidnapper.  If I was a kidnapper then how many Belizeans would have gone missing?  The police would have already dealt with me.  I don’t commit crime in my country and when I was in Guatemala, as a matter of fact, it was not a kidnapping ring as it was said by Guatemalan media that I was a ring leader.  It’s just that they were using my vehicle and I was with persons who were getting money from their parents and they pretended to have been kidnapped, for which they should have been charged and given the same sentence that I was given, but they didn’t because they are Guatemalans and I am a Belizean.  They did not deal with me fairly.  It was a mistake I made in life and I’ve got to admit that it was a mistake that I made in life and I’ve got to learn, like many people are saying, you need to learn from your mistake.  The mistake I made in life is to hang around people that were extorting their own father, their own parents, you know.  It’s like you come and you want to borrow my vehicle and you get the borrowed vehicle from me, you call your parents and you tell your parents that you are kidnapped, but you go freely with Joseph Budna to Honduras and from Honduras you call your people and say you’re kidnapped because you’re not reaching home tonight nor tomorrow, until three days and then you get a money and then you… What happened?  At the end of the day you don’t want your parents to know it’s a setup.  Practically it was an extortion.  The fact remains that it is not right and somewhere down the line I had to pay the price, but not what I was paying.  There was never a fair sentence for me at any point in time, you know.”