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Boots “Bex” Because He Was Called To Testify But Sent Home
Wed, June 28, 2017

There was supposed to be one more witness for the day. UDP Minister Anthony “Bootsâ€￾ Martinez was summoned by the Senate Select Committee to testify, and he was no doubt more than willing to come forward because he wanted to respond to the allegations that Alvarine Burgess made against him.

A few weeks ago, Burgess went before the Senate and said that back in the days when she was an immigration agent, she went to “Bootsâ€￾ Martinez, where she paid him several thousand dollars in bribe money so that he would write recommendations for Chinese visa applicants, guaranteeing that the visas would be approved. He told us that she is telling a lie, and most likely would have repeated those comments for the Senate’s record, but he didn’t get the chance. The Committee inexplicably decided that they couldn’t take his testimony today.

He granted us an interview complaining that the Committee wasted his time and offered him no explanation:

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez - UDP Minister
"Today, well prepared to go. I was informed that the committee is not ready for me yet. I have some fundamental difficulty, I think this senate inquiry to me begins to become a kind of circus, I don't know, I don't know."

Daniel Ortiz
"Have they given you any explanation as to why they haven't given you this summons today that they cancelled?"

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"No explanation at all, I mean taking me out of my busy schedule, today is my constituency day and you summoned me and I think that if you want to -  in my humble opinion the meat of the matters and I think that readily anticipated for ministers to be called and testify."

Reporter
"So you've been informed of another date when you should reappear?"

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"I have never been informed of another date, they just said that they are not ready for me yet, I don't know when they will be ready for me."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir I get the sense that you're treating this particular issue with a sense of urgency since you're character has been called into question in these hearings."

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"Well I don't worry about the character calling to question you know, my character called into question almost on a daily basis; wrongfully but that is not an issue with me, the issue is what is before the senate and so I think I'm not here. The senate called me to question my character, I think that the summons said testify in regards to what happened in regards to the immigration thing but again I have some little fundamental problem like for example, Mrs. Burgess. She is nowhere in that report and for even myself to be answering or try to reply to hear say; Mrs. Burgess is not in that report at all, I don't know that's why I said I find it to be a circus."

The press also questioned Martinez about Pacheco’s sworn testimony from last week that she felt intimidated by ministers who made recommendations for persons who didn’t qualify for immigration documents.

Other Immigration Officers have, under intense cross-examination, conceded that these requests from ministers did affect how they viewed the applicant who the Ministers were vouching for.  All UDP ministers who we’ve questioned on this topic have insisted that the recommendations are merely suggestions, and not directives.

Here’s how Martinez answered that one when confronted with Ady Pacheco’s testimony:

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez - UDP Minister
"I've made recommendation all across the board, even as a minister I recommend people with passport, people for lands, for education, for everything. I do a lot of thing in my career so there is no--"

Reporter
"But specifically Asian nationals to facilitate visa approvals for them."

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"Facilitate? How could I facilitate, listen to me. There are a couple things, there is the formula of how a person get visa. I don't have a difficulty with whatsoever recommendation is just a suggestion you know."

Reporter
"That carries weight according to the testimony of some of the immigration officers who came here."

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"Listen to me, you look up the meaning of recommendation and it might carry weight within the regulation, it might carry weight within the regulation. Just yesterday I made a recommendation to public service in regards to a constituency of mines who was seeking a job and that recommendation was turned down. Why? Because the person didn't meet the qualifications, he didn't meet the qualification required by public service to get the job so recommendation is just a suggestion you know, that is no guarantee you know."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir that is the ideal situation, it has been revealed that these recommendations hold sway, they obliged the immigration officers to act in a certain way."

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"But I don't know that sir, that is not the policy and that is not the law. So whatsoever is the policy and the law must remain, the person must show where he got proof that he could stay, he need bank statements, all of that is the requirement, it is not just on recommendation."

Reporter
"Did it ever cross your mind that the intervention you made intimidated public officers?"

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"Intimidate public officers? No man, intervention, no man."

Reporter
"Ms. Pacheco said that the involvement of ministers and political persons intimidated her in her work."

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"How you mean intimidate?"

Reporter
"That she did not approve or make that recommendation of a minister work then she could be transferred."

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"But how could she make a recommendation of a minister work when you're govern by certain guidelines?"

Martinez says that the Senate did not give him a date that he must return to testify. He says that he was told that another summons would be sent to him.

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