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Nov 3, 2010

“Cover up, cesspool of corruption;” Carlos Perdomo called out on Chinese visas

On Tuesday night we broke the news that at the top of the Ministry of National Security, directives were issued to the Immigration Department to grant visas to Chinese nationals via the Belize Embassy in Cuba. The Chinese and other nationals stopover in Belize on chartered flights and then make their way to the promised land, the United States. When we followed the paper trail, it showed that the ring transcends borders, is well oiled and is facilitated by big names. After it was exposed, at a press conference at the Raccoon Street Police Station on October twelfth, Carlos Perdomo, the Minister of National Security and Immigration, under pressure, said “I would like to say categorically that this minister is not involved and will never be involved with any type of illegal activity dealing with this type of immigration scandal that we have now.” Six immigration officers were subsequently charged with purposely aiding and facilitating the commission of an offence under the Immigration Act and Forgery of an Official Document.  The officers retained the services of Simeon Sampson and Arthur Saldivar. When Saldivar’s clients were initially charged, he said the corruption went to the highest levels of the government. Earlier today News Five spoke to Saldivar about the leaked documents that show the Ministry not only knew about the visa approval to Chinese nationals, they also facilitated through the immigration department.

Arthur Saldivar, Attorney for Suspended Immigration Officers

arthur saldivar

“What this suggests is what I’ve believed for quite a while, Jose that this situation of human smuggling goes to the very top. I think this is confirmation of it. This is saying that the Minister of National Security is cognizant of Chinese nationals being granted single entry visas into Belize. And they are coming through the Embassy of Belize in Havana, Cuba.”

Jose Sanchez

“So are you surprised when the pulled the plug, supposedly, on Cuba?”

Arthur Saldivar

“What I am surprised about is the statement that the minister made in his press conference; that he categorically states that he knew nothing of and had no involvement in any immigration scandal of the kind that was being suggested. But apparently it appears that Carlos Perdomo knows quite a bit of Chinese Nationals.”

Jose Sanchez

“The director of Immigration when I spoke to him, he said when it comes to Cuba; anything that passes through Cuba or related to Cuba concerning visas, comes as a directive from the Ministry of National Security.”

Arthur Saldivar

“Well I’ve heard the same and this is the reason why I have been adamant in my position that it is a cover up and that the poor and the powerless are being used as scapegoats for those fat cats in Belmopan who are basically living large at the expense of Belizean taxpayers by basically compromising national security and having Chinese nationals using Belize as a springboard to get into the United States.”

Jose Sanchez

“My concern is that the people responsible for carrying out this investigation, or half of it, which is the Ministry of National Security. Can the Ministry of National Security investigate itself in a case that it seems they know all about it in the first place?”

Arthur Saldivar

“Well this is again. It marks that corruption. This is more than a whiff; this is a cesspool of corruption. I would hope that he prime minister who, I believe, also has interest in national security takes a firm look at this. It’s surprising that a man who proposes to have the impeccable integrity of the Prime Minister of Belize could allow a minister such as Carlos Perdomo to compromise all that he seeks to build in terms of the transparency, accountability and good governance of this present government.”

The last time a visa scandal hit the government, a minister was put out of Cabinet and his U.S. visa was cancelled.


Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.

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23 Responses for ““Cover up, cesspool of corruption;” Carlos Perdomo called out on Chinese visas”

  1. GUINEA GRASS Observer says:

    The Prime Minister of Belize said in an interview that the persons responsible were the 6 immigration officers and that the RING LEADER was a CHINESE BUSINESS MAN…..c

    CAN THE PRIME MINISTER PLEASE PROVIDE HIS/HER NAME??? OR THE POLICE???

    I HOPE THE USA PRESSURE THE PM TO HAVE AN INDEPENDENT COMMISSION OF INQUIRY…

    This international human smuggling ring have to be dismantled because the present issue right now is ILLEGAL immigrants; then it will be the DRUG LORDS, and eventually TERRORIST, that will be using our airspace and airport as route for the illegal activities.

    There is certainly a cover up by authorities because this incident is an ‘International Human Smuggling Ring’; thus, requiring for the international operation to function, a well organized structure with numerous actors that have power and authority. In other words, this incident involves a great number of actors, FROM high ranking elected and appointed public officials TO low-level public officers.

    If we examine the situation carefully for this illegal human trafficking ring to operate, we can observe the following points:

    1.) the fake visas had genuine numbers.

    Who (minister, CEO, senior official) provided the numbers for the visas, which are secured in the immigration vault and accessed by a handful of individuals? [Minister, CEO, Senior Immigration officials]

    2.) the visas # had to be given from Embassies of Belize permitted to give visas

    Which embassy of Belize in the Caribbean allowed to provide this service? Cuba?[Ambassadors] 3.) the airplane company is based in Santo Domigo but was charted to fly from Haiti to Belize Who charted the airplane? How the Japanese got clearance from Haiti immigration? [Foreign diplomats]

    4.) The flights were schedule to fly on the schedule of certain customs officials

    Who is responsible for the flight schedules to Belize? What civil aviation have to say about this? Who was at the airport tower to give the clearance for landing? which airspace did the flight used?[Civil Aviation]

    5.) The flights were mainly during the evening

    why was no suspicion raised? Why didn’t immigration officers got concern when they saw that there was no place of issuance of the visas? why didn’t customs officials question the tourist who didn’t had luggage? [Immigration and Custom Officers]

    6.) The airport have cameras
    what the driver of the transporting van have to say? why his name is not released so the media question him too? where he dropped off the supposing ‘tourist’?[taxi driver]

    7.) the Chinese immigrants needed a place to sleep. who provided them with food and shelter?[Hotelier]

    This briefly analysis, clearly points out that there are several suspects in this incident; including High Level Authorities of Belize. The following suspects should be questioned: minister, CEO, senior immigration officers; ambassadors; foreign diplomats; civil aviation; immigration and customs officials; taxi driver; hotelier; etc…

    My recommendations:

    1.) A recommendation is that an independent commission need to be establish to do the investigation because there will be a cover up because it involves elected politicians.

    My recommendation is that it should not include the suspects mentioned above but the commission be composed of (i) both PUP and UDP appointed members; Belize senate, U.S. intelligence officers (just for this case); judges; senior police officers from not the district of Belize;and others. This commission has to involved different parties with different interest so that the report of the truth is non-bias.

    2.) the charged immigration officers should be allowed to give a press conference

    This press conference will allow the media to ask the tough question and allow the whole story to be revealed.

    3.) the court should make a deal with custom officials they should be given some sort in leniency of they confess who all are involved.

  2. rootsman says:

    like I said before dirty, dirty, dirty they are all dirty Perdomo is just one of them look at the portfolio they hold even the junior ministers as area representatives or whatever duties they have if there is an opportunity to be corrupted they will do so selling land, receiving kickbacks on contracts allowing drug dealers to freely operate in the country you name it they are involved in it and this is not just one political party this goes for both of them, what Belize needs is a watchdog organization to oversee the activities of these various government ministries.

  3. MADDYVANDIJK/DEREALIST says:

    This is no new news, politicians in Belize are criminals first, they commit crimes because most times they get away with it. Their criminal act did not just started with this new bust on these few Chinese visas, this is only just one of the small cases made headlines because something got careless.
    Perdomo is the small rat here compare to those that gave the order’s to sell Belize reputation for millions. Everything that criminals like Perdomo gets away with, they get away with because the Pm allows it, simply because he deftly maneuvered to profit from it as well.

  4. rod says:

    arrest all of them from the prime minister down pm perdomo and the rest lock them all up for corruption, bribery ,embezlement, spying, and many more acts of total corruption and the pm will say he wasnt in the country as usual he is never in the country thats why belize is in the gutter .

  5. DonPepe says:

    Man this Fked up up GOB has to go, we really need new Government here in Belize, I once read that the only man capable of caring for this country and being a leader is Rene Villanueva, am starting to believe this.
    It’s about time they start to put these criminal in central prison, don’t let it slip away like Fonseca and Musa, jail them R@$$. Am tired of this crap our country is just going to R@$$ with these king of leaders, greedy pieces of trash.

  6. Cutty Ligiyaba says:

    It will be great news to hear that the real criminals are brought before the court to answer to their

    crimes. Belizeans should realize that if these crimes are left alone or swept under the rug by

    charging the wrong individuals, then it will escalate into a different ball game. Great job chnl 5!

  7. >>Jimmy>> says:

    that is why so many chines in this country…. taking over all the business….. 90% of all the grocery shops in the country of belize are chines….. these chines are giving thousands of dollars to them ministers and imigration officer so they can come and make the belize people more POOR… THEY TAKE ALL THE PROFIT FROM THEM BUSINESS AND TAKE IT TO UNITED STATES WHEN THEY GET VISA………. PEOPLE FROM BELIZE SHOULD STOP THIS…..

  8. luo says:

    yes they are greedy noh @#$$,,…

  9. Speechless says:

    If the people are not happy with a minister, is there a way how to step them down? If it said that the ministers serve us and if it’s not being done then there must be a way to change them. Five years is too long……… Just like in the world of business, if a manager or even the General Manager is not performing, they are fired forthwith. Why can’t we do the same. By doing this, this ministers will surely buckle up and try to keep their jobs.

    Let’s find solutions………

  10. Corruption 101 says:

    So what is going to be done? Belizeans need to demand action.. have them all prosecuted.

  11. el alcalde says:

    UNA COLCHA EN ME PAIS POR FAVOR. TAPEMOS TAPEMOS TODOS,Y TODO !!!

  12. DoSumting says:

    @Cutty Ligiyaba. Yes the big time criminals are the men/ women on top but the immigration and customs officers are guilty also! Me personally know that they are all greedy and make deals with Coyotes.. $20 – $50 per head fu allow immigrants fu pass(happens everyday). AND i no only hea this.. i witness this 4 – 5 years back when i gan do college internship da Benque Viejo border!

    How can we explain all a dem immigration and customs officers weh have the most expensive cars, BIG TIME houses and have regular salaries.. Stap be blind people!

  13. Corruption 101 says:

    What will be done about this.. we want actions. We want them prosecuted. because they high-tek no means they can get away with it. WE WANT JUSTICE!

  14. Speechless says:

    We need a president like Felipe Calderon to start cleaning this country!

  15. BELIZEANGYPSY says:

    FOR ALL BLOG WRITERS WOULD YOU PLEASE CHECK YOUR GRAMMER AND SPELLING BEFORE YOU POST, ALSO REMEMBER WE ARE BELIZEANS BUT WE DON’T HAVE TO WRITE THE WAY WE SPEAK. THE INTERNET IS CALL ” WORLD WIDE WEB” WHICH MEANS PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD READ OUR BLOGS , NOT EVERYONE IS VERSE IN SLANG LANGUAGE. ” DoSumting ” YOU MENTIONED YOU WENT TO COLLEGE, YOU SHOULD BE WRITING IN A MORE EDUCATED MANNER.

  16. Therese says:

    Public Officers need to be paid a decent salary, if this is done then I am sure many of the different public officers who take bribes or make deals will think twice before doing so.

    Police Officers especially, how can a man especially work under such pressure as in the Police Force and at the end of the day takes home small change to his family that cannot even pay the bills much less buy grocery.

    I strongly believe that the WAGES for PUBLIC OFFICERS needs to be reviewed, revised and amend fastttt, this way GOB will attract more HONEST and COMMITTED workers.

  17. belizean says:

    @ BELIZEANGYPSY but da why we haffy kaata fi di world???????????

  18. oilgirly says:

    @Belizeangypsy maybe you should check your own “GRAMMAR” and spelling because the internet is “CALLED” the world wide web but we are Belizeans and we LOVE our language and if anyone want to know anything about us they can find out about our dynamic language and if they know semantics they can sound out the spelling of our beautiful Kriol language, not slang, butin fact LANGUAGE

  19. Skywalker says:

    BELIZEANGYPSY… Why don’t YOU check your GRAMMAR and spelling. Ironic, don’t you think?

  20. deedee says:

    @Gypsy….relax. If this was a Spanish/Latino website, I would say that most of its users would be Spanish speaking persons & also I certainly believe they would be speaking in Spanish. If anyone would go on their site and tell them speak or write so that the rest of the world can understand them……u will be dealt with because that basically insulting their language etc. So just relax & let people express themselves freely.

  21. Stand Up says:

    What I like is that Saldivar, the guy who gets all these murderers off on technicalities, has now turned righteous man and is going to “fight corruption!” What a farce.

  22. dee says:

    I am convinced that some of those Imm officers knew exactly what was happening, cause it was being done on a regular basis. However its bigger than them and it looks like none of them wantss to talk so they will face the consequences. If it was me in that situation i would have sing like a bird.

  23. José says:

    El tráfico de chinos es un problema que se ha generalizado en toda América, La corrupción es un problema que no deja avanzar a los pueblos.

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