7 News Belize

Guatemalan Escapee Budna, Free In the Land Of the Free
posted (July 15, 2019)
Last week we told you about Joseph Budna, the Belizean who escaped from a Guatemalan jail at the end of May. He had been serving a 25 year sentence for kidnapping.

So, when he was caught in Belize last week Thursday - many thought he would be sent back to Guatemala to face justice. But there's no extradition treaty so he was released on Saturday night, free and clear of charges.

Today in Belmopan he spoke to the media and told us how it feels to be free:...

Joseph Budna, A "Free" Man
"Well most naturally it feels good to be home a free man - land of the free. Belize is the land of the free. Thank God for that. I think God is the one that lead me for where I am today. If it was not for him I wouldn't have been where I am today. You know how the Guats are. It's hard to get away from these guys."

"You may think or want to know how I get from Guatemala to Belize border? Like many Belizeans asks this "bwai how you get weh from di Guatemalans dem?, dem no play." that is the sentiment that I have been hearing around Belize. Well, I had to smart them out. Studying them a while I managed to go to the hospital on numerous occasions through a judge. When I got to the hospital, always there are more than one officers with me. But God is great, because that day one officer. From 2014 to that day and that was the moment I was waiting for. That was the day I was waiting for and when that day reach I took the advantage. One officer took me to the hospital. They did not take me chain and foot like they always do and that was how I made good my escape. The guard was arrested and I am glad to be home I managed to travel the same day."

"Guatemala not even set up any checkpoint. Watch me on a motorcycle coming free from Guatemala. I passed 3 police vehicles."

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"So you reach the Benque Viejo border within how many hours?"

Joseph Budna, A "Free" Man
"I start to travel after 11pm the night. I was in a mountain and I started to travel. There were people who were assisting me. They know how the prison is run over there and I jumped on my cycle and I passed the police them, I even blow my horn and cross the border. When I saw the Melchor bridge, I say I am not going on that bridge, because the police must be there right now. So I went through the river and I went right down, park the motorcycle and I cross the river. When I was crossing it had a strong currant that was taking me. But for the grace of God I am here. I cross that river, I brought a knife and when I put foot on Belize's territory, I took that knife and I fling back to Guatemala. That's a sign that I am a change person."

And while he says he is changed, Budna told us he's also survived some harrowing experiences. He says the worst was in 2016, when a Guatemalan minor, Julio Ruano Rene Alvarado was killed by Belizean authorities in the Chiquibul. He says that's when the other prisoners came to kill him:

Joseph Budna, A "Free" Man
"When this took place on the 21 April, 2016 - on the 25th it was published on the Guatemala media. I was the only Belizean in the jail when I saw a mob of Guatemalan from the right hand side and the left hand side and from here. I did nothing wrong in the prison and they said "bloody Belizean you all are killing our people" and they came with machete, tools. I am not lying. Let me show you and the Belizean people of what I have to remember from the Guatemalans that I don't desire this for no Belizeans. They pushed a knife here and the knife went this way, you could see other marks - all of this I got. This was when I made good my escape to the office where the director of the prison was, but I still got chopped there. Now I'll show you more than 28 stiches I got in my head when this incident occurred in Guatemala. It was not for my long hair - If you can see in my head how they burst my head. I got stiches from the front to the back. I was beaten badly."

And Budna doesn't want to go back there for nothing! And he is confident he won't have to. Putting on his bush lawyer robes for a minute, here's how explained it:

Joseph Budna, A "Free" Man
"They don't give one damn, let the man go back to his country. That was the sentiment. I have friend who were police officers over there also. They did not set up a checkpoint and if it was so big as how I see some Belizeans are talking about it like it's a big think. Man, this thing is nothing. Why I say its nothing: how many Guatemalans escaped from the Belize Central Prison? You google it. How many of them go right across the border and they are right in Melchor and you could see them there when you go to buy. Do you think they are picked up and sent back to Belize? There are no collaboration and they cannot do it as well. You cannot pick up that man and questioned him, because there is no treaty."

"I cannot be committed to the Hattieville Prison, because no supreme court judge would not accept that a person coming from Guatemala, running from the Guatemalans, whatsoever pass he has, come to Belize which is a free country and he is a Belizean and there is no treaty and you will send him to Hattieville? Let me see the extradition treaty you have. You cannot do that. There is no one above the law."

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