And switching now to police news - we broke the story about ACP Marco Vidal's 60 day suspension on Monday. As we told you, the former Commander of Operations - and the man who effectively number 3 in the police chain of command - has had a sharp and hard fall from grace since November 4th when a drug plane landed in Bladen. 11 persons were arrested and charged for it, including 4 of the 7 members of his handpicked strike team. This was an elite team - which had the highest level of clearance - and it included Vidal's nephew, Corporal Elmer Nah. Since then Vidal has gone from a transfer, to personal leave, and, now, to suspension.
Today we got a chance to ask the Police Minister about what triggered the suspension, and what are the implications for the senior cop's career.
We started by asking what are the administrative irregularities that were sent to the Security Services Commission for them to recommend suspension.
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"I believe the investigation had shown thus far that there were administrative failures on the part of ACP Vidal when it came to assets of the police department and of course just general knowledge of your team's business and what they are doing at any given particular time. Based on those initial findings while the investigations are ongoing, ACP Vidal has been placed on suspension by the security services commission."
Jules Vasquez, Reporter
"Would you say these administrative lapses include enabling them to use vehicles which are not the property of the police department? The property has to be determined by a court, some other body or by customs and second, in so doing, creating an outlaw culture which was allowed to thrive under the commissioner of police Chester Williams. Nobody put a hand in to say "Man you can't take all of these vehicles to use as you want"."
Hon. Kareem Musa
"Yeah well that can be argued Jules, but at the same time, one has to admit that this particular unit of the department was doing a lot of busts. While it is that there appears to be some other mischief that they were up to, they did have a lot of free reign as I think you were trying to insinuate."
Jules Vasquez, Reporter
"But these are sovereign leveled failures that we are now under scrutiny for. Did this come up in your meeting yesterday with the US Embassy? This critical security lapses and lack of confidence that it inspires in all your partners including the coast guard, BDF and your international partners?"
Hon. Kareem Musa
"Well, you see Jules, it is habitual for the Narco traffickers and the cartels to enlist and employ security forces in all of these countries where you see plane landing and so it does come down to a matter of trust but at the same time you cannot expect one man being the commissioner of police, to micro manager 2,200 police officers. At some point you have to delegate and in this instance, that delegation is ACP Vidal and so there may have been administrative failures by ACP Vidal but I don't think that falls on the commissioner to know at any given point in time where he has to know where 2,200 police officers are."
Jules Vasquez, Reporter
"There has to be some critical lack of oversight because if I knew, and if so many people in the department knew, how Vidal's COST team skated around this country in all these unlicensed, unmarked, unprocessed vehicles. This is widely known in the department. How could the commissioner not have know of these serious and consequential infractions?"
Hon. Kareem Musa
"Again, it comes down to delegation of authority and responsibility. In terms of infractions, if they are going out doing a bust, how can you call that an infraction? There is the responsibility and I will agree with you on this that ACP Vidal ought to have known on that particular night where his officers were. That I will agree with you, but if they are on leave, what are they doing still? Or why did all of them go on leave at the same time? Perhaps ask those critical questions."
Reporter
"If it is proven right that he had neglected administrative duties, would there be grounds enough for him to be removed from the department?"
Hon. Kareem Musa
"I believe so, at the end of the investigation there may be a report based on the findings of that investigation that could amount to the dismissal of that officer."
Jules Vasquez, Reporter
"Was this raised in the meeting with the USA yesterday?"
Hon. Kareem Musa
"I don't want to get into the details of what is raised at that level Jules, but what I will say is that we do have an issue and this government has established that there are individuals in the security forces that are engaged and who have been enlisted and it is our commitment as a government to root out every single one of them in instances where they are captured and so I have no qualms in saying that and I hope that our internal tribunals will find it fit as well."
Reporter
"Have any of our international partners indicated loss of confidence?"
Hon. Kareem Musa
"No actually, they are quite pleased that 2 out of the 4 plane landings in this year alone, one of them because of the failure to land on land because the police department was there, they ended up landing in the sea and I would venture to say a pilot lost his life. The other two were actually captured. At least what has been communicated to me from our international partners is that they are very elated by these busts."
Jules Vasquez, Reporter
"But that one that landed in sea was a total failure, it has led to so much loss of life in Belize and so much cocaine still being smuggled up north because we know that the Narco are of certain interest moved in immediately to scope up the cocaine."
Hon. Kareem Musa
"Cleary not worth it Jules, we have said it time and time again. A lot of people see it as an opportunity but really it's an opportunity to die"
