Belize Prepares Bid to Bring Joseph Budna Home

It appears the Joseph Budna saga isn’t over just yet. After months of silence, the case is suddenly back on the front burner, not because of anything Budna has done, but because of what Belize is now preparing to do. Budna has been sitting in a Guatemalan prison since his abduction and handover at Arenal last August, but Prime Minister John Briceño has revealed that his government is taking a new diplomatic step: Belize is getting ready to formally ask Guatemala to send Budna back home so he can finish serving his sentence here. It’s the first public update in months.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I think on the Budna issue, I’m going to go to Cabinet and discuss with the ministers to see if, from government to government, to ask for Budna to be returned to Belize and go to jail. We do that with Mexico from time to time, prisoner exchanges, and the agreement is that they have to spend the time in jail. I don’t know how much years he has left in his case over there, so if he has ten more years, for instance, we’ll give assurances to the government of Guatemala that he will spend the time in jail here. So it’s to bring him back.”

 

It’s a significant development in a case that raised serious questions about cross‑border law enforcement actions and now, the ball is back in the government’s court.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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