By Belize Live News Staff: John Saldivar says Godfrey Smith is learning what he learned four years ago: when Washington bans you, it doesn’t owe you an explanation.
The former UDP minister made the point in a Facebook post after Smith revealed that the US Embassy cancelled his visa without giving a reason.
According to Saldivar, the United States knows that people tend to believe someone is guilty once the US takes action against them, even without evidence or a trial. He said that is exactly why Washington relies on tools like visa revocations and designations.
“They use these tools, revocation of visas, designations, and such to persecute, bully, and punish persons with whom they have disagreements, mostly political,” he wrote.
Saldivar has been barred from the US since 2022. According to the US State Department, Saldivar accepted bribes for the improper acquisition of Belizean immigration documents and interfered in public processes for his personal benefit during his tenure as a government official.
He rejects that. Saldivar says his designation was really punishment for receiving money from a US businessman who defrauded the US government of half a billion dollars. In January 2020, John Saldivar was named in alleged court documents associated with a fraud court case in Utah, USA.
He called the immigration document allegations “gossip and hearsay” and said treating a ride on a Coast Guard boat as corruption was “frivolous and malicious.”
Saldivar is asking the new US Ambassador to review his file. But like Smith, he isn’t expecting a reply.
