And while Zetina says his department is not facilitating human smuggling, he did agree that human conflict is very present in his department. And that's the conflict between himself as director and the what he says is 90 to 95% of the rank and file who are trying to undermine him with whistle blowing campaigns such as this.
Jules Vasquez,
Sir you have said there is no wrongdoing so why is somebody apparently within the Department blowing the whistle?
Jose Carmen Zetina,
“There ain’t no whistle here and I expected this anytime, anytime, because right now in the Department you have some malcontents and I am going to reiterate on the amount of people. You have about 90% to 95%, I maintain that position fixed, more so now, and many things that happened in the past, that these malcontents both Immigration officers are not so contented with my coming to the Department and you know that. I don’t have to ask you and you don’t have to tell me because I know you know. Many people know that I was not welcomed in the Department because of many things that had been happening in the past. Everybody knows that and I am fighting it.
They fight me because of transfer, they don’t want to get transferred. They feel untouchable, they shouldn’t go. They fight me because of overtime. They fight me because I brought in, not brought in, but people I had vacancies and three police officers came over to work as immigration officers. So what is the big deal?
These are the things that these people try instead of doing their work, to give proper service to the public. That is what they should concentrate on and that is what the public should see. That is what the public should see, how these sort of public officers are behaving. They are behaving because of Zetina’s principle of how to run a department.
I am not going to bow down to their pressure. I have been through this Jules and you know that with bigger numbers than that I have gone through this. I call it a handful and I will continue to fight. This is spite. For what, I am not going to report to anybody and go to each immigration officer and ask and tell him what I am doing.
The persons who prepare this is known and there is no secret about this. It was down in the open but I am not going to tell each Dick, John, and Harry what I am doing in the department. No man, I am going to do that. I am not going to give in to that kind of...they would want to call it pressure but I would call it nothing. I would call it nothing.”
Jules Vasquez,
So sir if you are saying that you are under attack by those within your department...
Jose Carmen Zetina,
“It makes me stronger because anytime these kinds of venom are being thrown at me, it makes me stronger. These are the things that reenergize me Jules to be frank and you know that. I have been through these battles of war and it is a skirmish. I call it a skirmish.”
Zetina says the permanent residency deposits, US$15,000 per family, are held at the Central Bank. On the 102 visas issued in Thailand, in each case, he says all fees, $4,000 each, plus another $8,000 for return travel, have been forwarded to the office in Belize and entered as revenue or held as deposits. The political officer at the U.S. Embassy was unable to comment this afternoon.
