_{ISecurity LTD Facebook post on training for aviation security officers in February 2025}

Officials distance themselves from suspended multimillion-dollar BAA contracts

BELIZE CITY, Tues. June 10, 2025

A slew of government officials have sought to distance themselves from two controversial 10-year domestic airport security contracts totalling $28.5 million, which were awarded by the Belize Airports Authority (BAA) in the third week of December 2024, but which have now been suspended (since June 5, 2025) and all disbursements frozen after a new BAA board of directors deemed that “the proper procedures may not have been observed” in the awarding of those contracts. There was no open tender; rather, only three companies were invited to bid in a selective tender process whose terms of reference did not mention a TSA certification requirement or specialized training.

Prime Minister John Briceño is responsible for the Civil Aviation portfolio and, after that portfolio was taken from Minister Andre Perez in August 2023, Perez’s CEO, Kennedy Carillo, was replaced on the BAA board by the PM’s CEO, Narda Garcia. Garcia’s daughter, Thea Garcia-Ramirez, was the general manager at the BAA at the time when the contracts were awarded. She is no longer there.

News of the contracts first emerged at a press conference that was held on April 30 to update the public on the measures taken since the hijacking of a Tropic Air flight on April 17 – but we learned that the contracts had been awarded at an earlier date in response to the discovery of what was suspected to be a pyrotechnic device on a Maya Island Air flight in September 2023 and the theft of a plane from the Placencia Municipal Airport in October 2023. Despite no apparent haste in getting the service going after those incidents, the parties seemed to be in a hurry when the contracts were awarded. Bids were to have been received by December 20, 2024, and those were opened the following day. Before Christmas, both contracts had been signed.

ISecurity LTD from Orange Walk received a contract to the tune of $13.5 million ($112,500 per month or $1.35 million annually), while the second contract went to 4Diamond Security for $15 million ($125,000 per month or $1.5 million annually). As it turns out, because of the April hijacking, ISecurity, which was established since 2021, had to go into overdrive to deliver on its contract; and the BAA said that on the day of the tragedy, it was actively working to roll out the new measures in phases, and that implementation was to begin “in the next few weeks.” The Department of Civil Aviation, in a release on the evening of the hijacking, stated, “… discussions to enhance security at domestic terminals were already in progress before this incident, including negotiations with specialized security service providers.” However, it quickly became clear that the company was not entirely suited for the task at hand, as more than half of its personnel are reported to have failed a basic security training exercise at the Philip Goldson International Airport. Reports are that when they could not perform at the required standard for basic activities like conducting pat-down searches, police officers had to continue performing the duties of screening passengers at the domestic airports for a longer period than envisioned. This is despite the ISecurity personnel having undergone training by the BAA in February.

It later emerged that, despite not having conducted any work for months since the contract was awarded, ISecurity had started getting paid since January 1, 2025. Based on our review of its Facebook page, the company advertised for security officers on January 8, 2025, with an application deadline of January 22. Training would have started in February. Here we also note that on May 8, ISecurity advertised once more. This time, the call was specifically for aviation security officers for Dangriga, Corozal, Belize City, San Pedro, Caye Caulker and Placencia. The requirement was an application letter, resumé, and police record along with a high school diploma and security experience as an asset. The company indicated that successful applicants would undergo a one-week course with a final exam and on-the-job training.

Prior to 2025, the company was providing security for businesses and for functions, among other services. Notably, on February 9, 2022, ISecurity posted on its online page that it was providing security for the Orange Walk Town Council, the former workplace of one of the company owners.

_{Ian Cal, principal of ISecurity LTD at a training for the company’s aviation security officers on February 10, 2025}

When asked at the April 30 press conference, CEO Garcia reported that she was unaware who received the security contracts, saying it was the chairman of the Board, Ricardo Martin, who executed them. When the media first asked Prime Minister Briceño about ISecurity’s principal, Ian Cal (former PUP Deputy Mayor of Orange Walk – sitting on the council up to 2021 and during the tenure of then Mayor Kevin Bernard – and former Director of National Sports Council when Minister Kevin Bernard had responsibility for the portfolio), the PM said he knew who Ian Cal was, but that the BAA should be the one asked about the contracts. During the budget debate on May 27, when Amandala was finally able to ask PM Briceño about the contract awards, he stated that if the companies were paid “for a time when they did not perform any work then that will have to be deducted from future payments.” When we asserted that the deal reeks of corruption, he responded, “I don’t know how you deem that as corrupt.” He argued that limited tendering is done in many instances. Pressed about the public’s perception, he said that quite likely things could have been done differently and added, “Was I involved in the process? No. Had I known, I would have probably given advice that we need to go a different route.” It has since been emphasized that, as per the Belize Airports Authority Act, a tenders committee should be appointed from among the Board of Directors, and that all contracts above forty thousand dollars require the approval of the minister, in this case, the Prime Minister, who claimed no knowledge of the process in our interview with him.

For her part, when she spoke with Amandala on May 28, now Minister Thea Garcia-Ramirez clarified that the BAA is a statutory body which operates based on fees collected, including a rider fee. She also shared that members of the board were required to sign non-disclosure agreements, and that at the time, she was an ex-officio board member without voting rights. She told us that when the contracts were being discussed, she had advised that a legal expert should review the contracts before issuance, and that when they were actually signed, she was not present, as she was out sick. She said that she returned to find the signed contracts on her desk after the Christmas break. She shared, “I did document my thoughts and my preference for the handling of the contracts. However, I was not in the position to do much more than that.”

The latest official to distance himself from the contracts is Minister Kevin Bernard. Interestingly, he was a co-owner of ISecurity at the time of its formation in March 2021 alongside Cal and former public utilities CEO, Jose Urbina. In a release issued today, Minister Bernard says he lawfully divested all his shares from the company and transferred them to Cal. He provides the share transfer instrument as proof. He then writes, “Since that time, I have had NO involvement in the management, operations, or contractual dealings of ISECURITY LIMITED.” He is adamant that he had no involvement in the award of the controversial airports security contracts, and writes, “As a Minister of Government, I hold transparency, accountability, and public trust as paramount. It is therefore important that I correct this misleading narrative, which has the potential to unjustly harm my reputation and standing.”

Before the BAA contracts scandal, the terms of the contracts were being renegotiated to include some airstrips that were not part of the original contracts, including the one in Ranchito from which the Tropic Air flight departed with a passenger who would subsequently hijack the plane. The executive director of 4Diamond Security is Michael Estephan, Jr., who is also politically connected. He co-owns the company with a BAA board member, Nigel Bouloy, and his wife. Their contract was for the provision of a monitored security cameras system.

The new BAA board, chaired by Naim Briceño, says the procurement process and due diligence processes employed in the issuance of the two contracts are being investigated, and they are seeking a legal opinion “as to the validity of these contracts.” The board says that going forward, it will start a new, transparent tender process to secure qualified security service providers for the local aerodromes. It also committed that airport security remains a top priority, and that operations will not be disrupted during this transition.