7 News Belize

Foreman Found A Way Home
posted (May 26, 2020)
And while those 10 cruisers wait for their COVID test under quarantine - one Belizean who took another route to get back home had had a very different kind of experience.

Two weeks ago, we told you about Guillermo Foreman, the Belizean car salesman who found himself stuck at the Chactemal bridge waiting to get into the country. But he didn't wait too long because 6 days later he was let in, only in handcuffs. Foreman was expected to face three months in prison for violating the state of emergency regulation which closed the border, but tonight he's at home, out on bail. This afternoon we heard from Foreman's Attorney, Norman Rodriguez who is asking how his client could have committed a crime while complying with immigration instructions.

Norman Rodriguez, Attorney-At-Law
"That is arguable many ways and I am not going to challenge or debate the commissioner's words, he is also a trained attorney but I will give you my opinion, while that may be true one of the points of issues raised in the chat group for the association for defense attorneys is you lawfully enter Belize when you come up to the immigration, because that is the point where you come into the human resource that determines whether you are entering Belize legally or not and I can agree with what the commissioner has said - I can agree with him, but my strong stance will be the man stayed where he was instructed, advised or told by the immigration officer who spoke to him when he came upon that bridge. He couldn't remain in Mexico, he has to remain somewhere. I personally feel that while the laws are stringent, they are tough, maybe even draconian - you have to make some provisions for situations like these. You can't leave a man, a Belizean national out there in neverland hungry without money, without food and wanting to get home who respects the law, but you go on that bridge and bring him in and then you charge him. I don't see the logic in some of these things."

"Let's be real the man came he complied, he stayed where they told him to stay, he told me that he was hungry, one or two people sent him food, he was assisted by even the BDF or police officers when it comes to food. He doesn't seem to be someone wanted to break the law and if he remained where the immigration told him to remain then how can he have committed a crime?"

Cherisse Halsall:
"And the Sir, he said to me on Saturday that he never even saw the inside of a jail cell, now was he quarantined?"

Norman Rodriguez, Attorney-At-Law
"Well the first time I went to see him he was at the center for employment training building in Corozal. He was kept there by the police and the health people, so he wasn't in a jail, but he was imprisoned, because he couldn't leave on his own free will."

Cherisse Halsall:
"How many days did he spent there?"

Norman Rodriguez, Attorney-At-Law
"About 12 days, I think he went in on the 12th and on Friday he was arraigned. Somewhere close to 10 days and now that has been extended, so he can't leave wherever he is at this point."

Foreman was arraigned on Friday May 22nd in the Court of Magistrate Edd Usher, where he was granted bail of $15,000.00 and one surety. He's due back in court on July 29th.

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