When it comes to law enforcement, Mexicans don’t play! Just ask George Hardy and his three security guards from Las Vegas Casino in Corozal. They were busted crossing the border with guns in August and two months later they are still in Mexican jail facing the prospect of 30 years in jail. Or ask Minister of Youth and Sports Marcel Cardona; he was caught in a minor traffic offence in September, and he was held for hours, paraded before the Mexican media and not allowed to leave without paying an $800 fine.
But while the Mexicans don’t play, it seems Belize is their plaything. Tonight four Mexican soldiers are safely back on their side of the border - after they were busted in Belize with an illegal nine milimeter handgun loaded with 13 live rounds. They were on the wrong side of the law and on the wrong side of the border but they were sent home this afternoon without being charged, and to boot, they received a police escort from Belize City to the Chetumal border!
The Mexican soldiers who were off duty and in civilian clothes were busted with the gun at the Burrell Boom checkpoint at 9:50 last night. All four were travelling in a white Mazda car with Yucatan registration plates. The soldiers are three sergeants and a captain and we’ve confirmed their names as 35 year old Wilbert Mena, 33 year old Eliazar Naal, 28 year old Juan Luis Cruz,
and 26 year old Jose Luis Vidal. They were held overnight and taken to the Queen’s Street Police Station until this evening when Belmopan made the decision to send them home, scot-free. That decision we were told was made by the Ministry of National Security under provisions of the Geneva Convention.
We were at the Ladyville Police Station when the Mexican soldiers, again in the company of police escorts, went to pick up their Mazda and the gun. No one from the police would speak to us but we did get comment from an official from the Mexican Embassy who didn’t say much.
Mexican Embassy Official,
“The military attaché is at the embassy at the telephone number that I gave you.”
Keith Swift,
What is your job then?
Mexican Embassy Official,
“I work for the Embassy.”
Keith Swift,
So what is happening here?
Mexican Embassy Official,
“I can’t tell you anything. As I told you I cannot say anything right now. You can talk to the guy that I told you to talk to. Did you speak with the police guys? I can’t tell you anything, I’m sorry.”
We followed his advice and called Marcelino Miranda at the Mexican Embassy. He is the public relations officer and told us that the Embassy only provided consular assistance to the soldiers and it was the government who decided to send them home without charges. Miranda says the two militaries have a good working relationship but stressed that the Embassy did not intervene. He also referred to the Geneva Convention as one reason why they weren’t charged.
According to a senior source at the Ministry of National Security who asked to remain anonymous, under the Geneva Convention, once there are no hostilities soldiers who are captured should be handed back over to the country they are from, whether they were captured on duty or not; the principle is that a soldier is always a soldier. These soldiers were reportedly on vacation in Belize.
And as we stress the difference between news reporting and editorial comment, seems to us that the Geneva Convention is a convenient cover for a capitulation from Belizean officials, and we can’t imagine those soldiers trying the same thing at the northern border with Texas.
