He was unceremoniously dismissed as Belize's Ambassador to the United Nations two months ago but that's not the end of it. Now, Stuart Leslie will have to pay US$8,000 in parking fines. That's the pronouncement of the CEO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Sylvester who today told us that the nearly US8,000 in parking fines is the product of, "callus disregard and neglect" on Leslie's part - and even if it means deducting from his termination payments, the Ministry intends to get back the money from him.
Sylvester who did Leslie's job in New York until 1998 says that while he will pursue the money from Leslie, in the interim, the New York mission must find the money to pay because the Ministry will not pay it from Belmopan. This even though, Charge d' Affairs Janine Coye Felson told Sylvester in her June 30th letter that the mission just does not have the money.
Well now they'll have to find it, and until then, and up to this date, the fine, or the US$4,200 settlement proposal remains unpaid, and U.S. foreign assistance continues to be withheld. And just how much money is it holding up? Not much at all...Sylvester confirmed that it is a few hundred dollars in assistance from the U.S. government which, as we noted, is not known to be a very generous donor, at least not to Belize.
The decision to crack down on diplomatic parking fine violators was taken by the U.S. Congress and the lists of egregious violators such as Nigeria and Belarus were published in the New York press.