Email

Print

But, tonight, there is new insight into Saldivar's relationship with Lev Dermen - and it comes from one of his Cabinet colleagues.  Foreign Minister Sedi Elrington says that after Dermen's application to be an honorary consul was denied by the US, John Saldivar came to him directly in an attempt to appeal the decision on Dermen's behalf.

Now, this is a major revelation, because last week the Prime Minister only named Michael Finnegan as the sole minister who referred Dermen to the Foreign Ministry when he came asking about being Honorary Consul.  Here's how the PM put it last week:

FILE January 15, 2020  

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"He was guided indeed, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by a minister, who never wrote any formal recommendation, a minister whose name I will call, there's nothing to hide. The Honourable Michael Kwame Finnegan. Minister Finnegan quite properly said to him, you go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Minister Elrington told cabinet yesterday, that happens on a very regular basis."

And while he said he had nothing to hide, what the PM did omit to mention is that John Saldivar continued to press the issue at Foreign Affairs after the US rejected Dermen's name as unfit to hold the post.  

We learned this from Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington when we spoke to him this evening.  Cherisse Halsall first asked him if hew knew Lev Dermen:

Cherisse Halsall
"How much do you know the gentleman and what do you know about that process where he applied?"

Hon.Wilfred Elrington - Minister Of Foreign Affairs
"Well I don't know him at all, I don't know what he looks like but I will explain to you the process in this particular case. There was one Tuesday I was with the Cabinet when I was approached by Minister Finnegan who said they had this candidate that they thought would be a good person for honorary consul status for Belize. So I said well, the practice is you cause the person to make his or her application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where it is dealt with by the Chief of Protocol. I think I might have made a note to the Chief of Protocols saying that Minister Finnegan was asking about the possibility of having him made an honorary consul. Once it goes to the Chief of Protocol, they then do two things, they send his name to our own police station to find whether there is anything against and I think they send it to Interpol, to find out if they had anything against him. When that comes back, depending on what it says, then the request is sent to the United States for them determine whether or not they are going to accept him. I think that is how it was handled."

Cherisse Halsall
"And Sir you said, and the Prime Minister said that it was Minister Finnegan that recommended him, but we've received reports that other ministers also recommended him and even followed up with C.E.O Alexis Rosado."

Hon.Wilfred Elrington
"Well I do know for a fact that after we got a negative from the United States I was then approached by Minister Saldivar who asked whether we could do anything more for him and again I referred him to the protocol section of the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs who took it from there."