For much of this week Belizeans have been up in arms about the latest instance in which there appears to be a double standard in the enforcement of our laws.
Four soldiers in the Mexican army, Wilbert Mena, 35; Eliazar Neal, 33; Juan Luis Cruz, 28; and Jose Luis Vidal, 26, were traveling on the Northern Highway in a white Mazda with Yucatan province registration. Upon reaching the checkpoint at the junction with the Burrell Boom-Hattieville Road at Mile 13 around 9:50 p.m. on Monday night, October 13, Ladyville police stopped them and a search was conducted, first on the vehicle, and then on the soldiers themselves.
The men were said to be off-duty, wearing civilian clothes and in Belize for a vacation. Police could find nothing incriminating on their persons at the conclusion of the search.
However, a search of the Mazda turned up a 9-millimeter gun in the glove compartment loaded with 13 live rounds of ammunition, for which none of the men could produce a license. Under Belize’s recently amended Firearms Act, they would face immediate remand to the Hattieville Prison, with no opportunity for bail. Ladyville police say one of the soldiers later claimed ownership of the weapon and ammunition; another source has indicated that the soldiers, when asked, willingly handed over the weapon during the search.
The men were held overnight in Ladyville and transported on Tuesday to Belize City’s Queen Street Police Station.
However, at about 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, word came from the Ministry of National Security in Belmopan to release the men without charge.
The soldiers were taken back to Ladyville, where the impounded Mazda and the gun were returned to them, and they were escorted to the northern border, accompanied by local police and an official from the Mexican Embassy in Belize. Mexican diplomatic sources tell us they were handed over to Mexican authorities at Mexico’s immigration post, near the bridge crossing into Mexico.
Public attention was first called to the case on Tuesday night, and the Ministry of National Security at the time had indicated that the case was being handled under the terms of the “Geneva Convention.”
The term is highlighted in quotation marks above because there are in fact four Geneva Conventions, two of the most recent of which were signed in Geneva, Switzerland, on August 12, 1949, amended in 1977 and 2005, and reportedly the brainchild of Red Cross founder Henri Dunant.
The Conventions speak primarily about the treatment and rights of casualties of land battles, sea battles, prisoners of war and civilians caught up in wars.
Great Britain, Belize’s “mother country”, was an original signatory to the Third Geneva Convention in 1949, and after gaining independence in 1981, Belize ratified the convention on June 29, 1984.
The Third Convention forms the basis of the Ministry’s decision. In a mid-Wednesday afternoon release, it quoted Articles 1 and 2, which bind all signatories to the principles of the Convention “in all circumstances,” “in addition to the provisions which shall be implemented at peace time.”
More curiously, article 22, quoted in Government’s Wednesday evening’s press release, forbids prisoners of war from being interned in penitentiaries. What did the soldiers do to qualify as “prisoners of war?”
According to the release, they identified themselves as soldiers to Ladyville police, automatically qualifying them for protection under the Convention (Article 4, subsection 1).
But as far as we know, Belize is not now nor has ever been at war with Mexico, and the National Security release admits this.
The actual release was carried out according to Article 118 of the Convention, which demands that “Prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of hostilities.”
The Ministry of National Security did not give an opinion as to whether any criminal offense had been committed by the soldiers.
Opinion on the curious decision has been widely varying. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ CEO, Alexis Rosado, told us on Wednesday that his Ministry was never consulted over the decision, and that he personally – one of the top men in Foreign Affairs – heard of the situation on the evening news.
Commandant of the Belize Defence Force, Dario Tapia, Belize’s top soldier, backed the Ministry of National Security’s decision, telling us from his Ladyville office that the Geneva Convention does apply to the situation.
However, a senior Government source we contacted on Wednesday disagrees. While our source, very familiar with international law, is not against the decision – he told us it was not properly communicated – he said that the Geneva Convention, as far as he knows, does not apply to the situation. However, the release of the soldiers, according to him, was the right thing to do, as there was no indication that they were up to no good. The offense they committed, if any, was “technical,” not patent.
Questioned on the situation at a Wednesday morning press conference in Belize City, Prime Minister Hon. Dean Barrow said he could “stand by” the decision even without the Geneva Convention, citing an occurrence with Belizean soldiers in Mexican territory in 1999 near Aguas Turbias.
The Mexican Consulate in Belize, according to its press officer, provided the usual consular assistance and kept the men’s families updated on the situation. As to where the gun came from, Miranda informed us that the soldiers committed an error by failing to declare the gun at the northern border, only doing so at the checkpoint before the vehicle search when asked by Ladyville police if they had anything to declare.
According to the Consulate’s press officer, the men were civil and cooperative with Belize police, and said there was no intention to commit any offense. According to them, no one at the northern border asked about the weapon when they went through Customs and Immigration, and they crossed with the weapon into Belize “fully unaware” that they were committing an offense under Belizean law.