Tonight, Belizeans are demanding answers from police after citizen journalist Joseph Budna was abducted on Friday night and spirited across the border to Guatemala - where police were waiting for him with an arrest warrant. It's an extra judicial extradition for a man who had made many enemies in Belize with his devil-may-care style of reporting. And, he did this while being a fugitive on the run from Guatemala - where he had escaped prison while serving a 25 year sentence. That made him a wanted man - but tonight Budna has sent messages from Guatemala saying that it was police who abducted him. Jules Vasquez has the story:
This was Joseph Budna's last Facebook live on Friday night in Orange Walk - almost directly in front of the police station. When he was finishing - he noted something unusual:
Ryan Joseph Budna, Abducted
"(looks around) I heah something just now. I heah somebody seh Budna. Nobody deh round. Mek me goh."
"Mek I goh because we have a big ghost tree back there. And me noh de pon they simpleness. Let me move from here now. Cause me one deh yah."
"Anyway, bye, bye, bye, bye. Come on back in a while."
But he never came back. Budna was kidnapped before he got to his car -which is now in police custody. He ended up in the hands of Guatemalan police - as detailed in this voice message he sent from there:
Ryan Joseph Budna, Abducted
"That I was kidnapped on the Friday gone, on Friday gone, just in front of the Orange Walk police station by four police officers who identified themselves as police (inaudible). Orange Walk police ran out and heard me shouting for help , and as a result of me shouting for help, I was bashed in the head, gun butted and beaten on the ground, my phones were taken away and I was taped, my mouth was taped with duct tape and handcuffed. Then I was dashed inside a light blue SUV vehicle and I was taken away immediately."
"And police from Orange Walk they run out to assist but these guys identified themselves as police."
He also claims they spoke with police higher up's to say they had him. A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says "there is no evidence….that Guatemalan authorities entered Belize to apprehend…Budna."
He says his abductors were ruthless:
Ryan Joseph Budna, Abducted
"I couldn't move which I was handcuffed, and every move I did, it was gun butt in my ribs, my right ribs and gun butt in my head. I was beaten badly, I was bleeding inside the vehicle. And they travelled for almost about three hours and three hours and change."
"And when I opened my eyes it was at the Arenal Football field where I saw three national civilian police there."
A press release from the Belize police Department says "The Policia Nacional Civil (PNC) of Guatemala has confirmed that Mr. Ryan Joseph Budna is in their custody pursuant to an arrest warrant; however, they have not disclosed the details surrounding his apprehension."
But, Budna maintains his apprehension was a Belize police operation which then coordinated the handover:
Ryan Joseph Budna, Abducted
"And they came out of the vehicle, Belziean authorities, Belizean police came out of the vehicle and hand me over to the Guatemalan."
"And they brought me over to Melchor where I was taken to, to a cell block and theater the other day I was taken to the Melchor De Mencos Hospital and now I am being transferred to the Zone 18 Preventative Detention Prison Center where I am awaiting to go before the court."
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release says the Embassy of Belize in Guatemala has been instructed to "provide consular support to Budna to ensure that he receives the medical assistance needed and that his human rights are protected."
But, Budna maintains that elements of Belize's state security apparatus here are the ones who violated his rights.
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