7 News Belize

Mexicans Annoyed Over Nanes Schnitzer
posted (January 20, 2016)

And another subject the Mexican Ambassador commented on was the disappearance of David Nanes Schnitzer. As we told you, the Mexican fugitive got Supreme Court bail on Friday, November 20th and no one has seen him since. But, the truth is that he was imprisoned on a flimsy charge, for having a fake driver's license – which was only to hold him in jail until an extradition to Mexico could be arranged. But, the government of Belize failed to deliver him – because they said there was something missing from the extradition treaty to make it effective. Today Ambassador Quesnel told the media that as far as they are concerned the extradition treaty with Belize is intact, functional and didn't need anything to make it operational:

H.E. Carlos Quesnel Melendez - Mexican Ambassador to Belize

"Once the extradition treaty was entered into force, so for international law that treaty was totally in force. I also as a lawyer understand that there is a system in Belize that obligates the Belizean government to incorporate that treaty into national law. I'm not going to go into details because that's not part of our job. I just see the bilateral relationship and I would like us to mention that by international law standards that treaty was fully in force."

Jules Vasquez

"That event and the fact that he is now in the wind, has that affected relations between Belize and Mexico?"

H.E. Carlos Quesnel Melendez - Mexican Ambassador to Belize

"Jules, it was very regrettable that the judge did take the decision of the bail at that moment. And we do respect the internal laws of this country; we do respect the judicial decisions, so I'm not here as somebody, to, you know, to qualify that decision. What I can tell you, the least I can tell you is that after my experience in legal issues, that was a very, that was a very unusual law, bail, under the circumstances of Mr. Nanes Shnitzer. We certainly as I told you before, we did present our position, our official position by diplomatic channels. What i can tell you is that we have to see to the future. We have the guarantees of the Belizean government that this won't happen again, but we, we have a legal framework, and ha, and ah, I think that that tells us that we still have to work harder on cooperation in judicial matters.

"The relationship between both countries is very strong, very good, but we do regret this, this case but, ah, but we wouldn't want the relationship to be contaminated for a judicial case."

The Ambassador says a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty is on the table with Belize. Mexico's office of the Attorney General is working on the case, but there is no more information on his whereabouts forthcoming.

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