Since last week we've been reporting on Cuban Raonel Valdez Valhuerdi. He's wanted in Miami for masterminding a gold heist. But he was caught in Belize in February – trying to cross over illegally from Guatemala. He pleaded guilty and paid his fine, but the Belize government said it would hold him until the Cuban government decided his fate. But, on Friday of last week, the Americans started pushing to get him back to Florida to stand trial. This morning at 11:15, Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse explained what he said is a very clear position:
Hon. Godwin Hulse - Minister of Immigration
"The law is very clear. You have to deport a person to his country of origin, or to where he wants to go. That is, you can't - the US may want him like they may want so many other people. We can't just pick him up and send him. We're in communication with the Cubans, to try to get a response from them in the first instance, and then in communication with him to get a response from him. After that, we go forward. The US Embassy understands that; they've always been wanting various people, and that is okay, but if it were an American citizen, we couldn't just pick him up and send him to Cuba, or send him somewhere else. We have to follow the law and the protocols."
But, at the very minute Hulse was explaining the protocol, seems it was being violated. Valdez was flown out of the country on the 11:30 am flight to Miami; we did that interview at 11:15.
What Minister Hulse didn't know was that even as he was speaking to us, 2 Belizean law enforcement personnel, specifically a police and an immigration officer were loading Valdez unto an American Airlines flight.
When he arrived in Miami at 3:30 pm local time, he was arrested by a US Marshall. So how did it happen without even the Minister knowing? Well, best information says that the Cubans have an official policy of disinterest in any national who has gone to the US; this, apparently, was known by officials in the Department of Immigration who cooperated with the US and gave him the sendoff- apparently unbeknownst to the Minister.
Valdez is facing charges that he and two other men executed the armed robbery of two rolling suitcases packed with 110 pounds of gold flakes, valued at about $2.8 million – which is described as the biggest gold heist ever in Florida.
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