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For the past two nights you’ve been hearing every detail of Mennonite Farmer Roger Plett’s story of abduction in Belize and detention in Guatemala.  And while he unspooled his narrative in granular detail, officialdom said nothing: neither the police nor the ministries of National Security or Foreign Affairs would confirm or deny his account. 

Well, today, the Ministries ended their inexplicable silence with a Belmopan press conference held by the CEO’s in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Security.  The first announcement was that the OAS has been called upon to verify the incident:..

H.E Lawrence Sylvester - CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
"The government of Belize yesterday 17th of May requested of the Office of the Organization of American States in the adjacency zone a formal verification into the incident reported by the Pletts which allegedly occurred in the Green Hill area of the Cayo District. We are aware the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware of an ongoing police investigation into the matter."

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"I can tell you that as we speak my police officers and this is what I have done subsequent to establish any that Mr. Ayala was in fact safe in Belize. They did a detailed investigation, an investigation that is still ongoing and I had asked that they go on the ground along with Roger and Mr. Ayala and try to walk over the ground and confirm what happened and where it occurred. I was told that was done on the 13th the day after the incident."

Reporter
"Mr. Plett is saying that when he went into the police to give his explanation of what happened the police began to put Guatemalan military on the report. However after officials came in including officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs they refused and to put on the report Guatemalan military and changed it to men in camouflage. Explain to us the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in affecting the report of a person who was detained in Guatemala in determining the wording that would go on such a report."

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs have no role in that and that's my shortest and only explanation I would like to give to that question that you asked. In terms of our people who were involved in this very unfortunate incident given of course to Plus TV in such detail I would like to publicly ask them to give those report to the police. The other thing is and I'm going to say this publicly that the police should take statement from individual, the police should not tell the individual what should be in the statement and should not put in the statement anything the individual had not say."

Reporter
"The reason why the media was there was because the Pletts say the police refused to go to the location."

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"And this is allegations, I will have to go and confirm if what you're saying is in fact factual and if it is then we will have to be honourable enough to say that we will direct a new investigation for us to go and do it right the next time around but I don't think it is that way but I will still have to go and confirm that what you're saying is not so."

Reporter
"Now the Pletts are saying that they met the police but the police head by I don't know what is his rank Mr. Gamboa; they stopped at a gate and they said they were not going any further because it's a highly sensitive and volatile time and they did not want to create any incident between those countries hence they never went all the way bordering or to the border area where Roger Plett was detained. We have established that no police team has gone as far as the scene."

George Lovell - CEO, Ministry of National Security
"No we haven't established that, I am hearing that from you here. I haven't established that as yet, how can I? I have a report here right in front of me which is suggesting certain things that are not consistent with what you are saying to me. I am saying that having heard what you are saying and having seen this report I am updated to go back there and look them in the eye and say to them this is what was sent to me at this press brief, this is what you are saying, please confirm or deny these things so that I can get to the bottom of it."