Last night we told you about the humiliating experience that Dominican Prime Minster Roosevelt Skerrit was subjected to when he was detained by the Coast Guard on the waters near his San Pedro hotel on Saturday.
Skerrit was the special guest for Independence Festivities and the Coast Guard was to escort him and his delegation out to the Shark Ray Alley and the Hol Chan Reserve.
But the Coast Guard missed the time for the escort and instead intercepted Skerrit and his delegation on the way back. The Coast Guard officers tied the Skerritt boat to their own and boarded it.
According to eyewitness accounts, one Ogaldez from the Coast Guard rudely questioned members of the delegation on Skerrit's boat and roughly asked who is the Prime Minister? When Skerrit said "I am", Ogladez just ignored him.
It's a major embarrassment for the government and the coast guard and today Rear Admiral John Borland, Commandant of the Belize Coast Guard told explained what disciplinary action was taken against his officer.
Admiral John Borland - Commander, Belize National Coast Guard
"What actually happened is that the Coast guard was called to respond or to support a VIP escort and of course that VIP was the Prime Minister of Dominica and a delegation from [the Ministry of] Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Security and some people from Tourism. The coastguard received that call very late, the boat was on patrol so we had to make way to the area of operations to try and link up with the VIP vessel. It did not link up at the proposed point because the time had gone by and it was late. So they proceeded to the area of Hol Chan Marine [Reserve] and they met a vessel returning from Hol Chan down back to San Pedro and that indeed was the vessel. So they approached the vessel, got the vessel to heave to which means to stop and tried to conduct, not an investigation but just an inquiry to find out if it is indeed the VIP vessel and to report themselves as the escort as they were late and tried to apologize for being late. I think what went wrong was perhaps the approach of the vessel commander who was the coxswain, in this case as was reported, Petty Officer Ogaldez. And I think he erred in his judgment because when it got to the point of stopping the vessel and finding out whether or not this was the vessel with the prime minister onboard that was okay, but once that was verified then he should have had the courtesy and the respect to compliment the prime minister on being here, visiting us, being our guest in country, to pay respect and courtesy to him and just bid him the time of the day and let him go on his way. Instead, what he tried to do was get the particulars of the vessel, the particulars of those people onboard who stated that he did this because he wanted it to be in his patrol report, to report back to his commander. So, I think that was poor judgment on his behalf knowing a person of such rank and status and position of authority was onboard, you know. The best he could have done was to apologize at the moment for stopping the vessel and then carry on with his duties of escorting the vessel even though he was already late. So, certainly some people were aggrieved by his behavior. The reports came into the office, we conducted an investigation and we held a hearing or what you might call a tribunal. So the petty officer responsible, Petty Officer Ogaldez was placed on orders and came before the commandant on disciplinary trial and that trial resulted in him being demoted of his rank and reduced to the rank of seaman. So he no longer holds that authority to coxswain a vessel or to be in command of a patrol, or no longer has the authority to ever come in contact with such high ranking government officials again until he has learned a lesson that that is not the way that the coastguard operates. That is not the way we are trained to behave or conduct ourselves. We are professionals; we are taught to behave as such at all times, and whenever somebody errs in judgment, make a mistake, represents us poorly, or does something that is unbecoming of a Coast Guard officer, we hold them responsible to the highest standards of discipline, and that is what resulted in the disciplinary hearing yesterday."
Hon. John Saldivar - Minister of National Security
"His vessel was boarded by the Coast Guard, and the conduct of the Coast Guard officer on that vessel was unbecoming. The matter has been dealt with, and the Coast Guard officer has been reprimanded. We apologize profusely, and will send a communication to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for onward transmission to the Prime Minister; our deepest apologizes for what occur, but that it was just gross and inappropriate behavior, rude and obnoxious behavior by one member of the Coast Guard, which doesn't at all reflect on the general membership of the Coast Guard."
But it's not all bad news; while that is a major humiliation to the coast guard – today they had a chance to bask in their glory as they launched Belize's first ever Seal Team. We'll have that story for you coming up a little later.
