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Alvarine And Aldo Rounds 1 Thru 15
posted (June 1, 2017)
So, we've given you a summary of most of the important parts of the testimony that Alvarine Burgess gave to the Senate Select Committee.

But, as she was giving her narrative of the way the visa business worked at the Immigration Department, there were a number of instances that she and Chairman Aldo Salazar clashed on the details. As viewers are aware, he was very resistant to her appearing in the first place, and so, he was definitely her toughest cross-examiner. That led to numerous sparring matches between the two, and we've put together a few of them for you to decide if her story withstood his scrutiny:

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"I don't want to say that I don't believe. I am concern about the fact that someone who you just met would be telling you all of this and would be asking you to do something illegal."

Alvarine Burgess
"I never saw it as anything illegal and apart from that I came here to tell the truth."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"You may not have seen it as illegal, but it was illegal. And I'll be frank with you, it's difficult for me to believe that you came to Belmopan to help a neighbor and someone Mr. Chan, because you are helping your neighbor Mr. Chan somehow knows that you are very well connected to be able to go to a minister and proposes to you somebody who he has never met before. He proposes a scheme to you, a stranger that he will pay you $1,500 - somebody who he doesn't know. That's really eluding me and I have some concern there."

Alvarine Burgess
"Mr. Chairman, I think you are eluding yourself. I mention to you, I told you that my family who introduce us probably, I am assuming, that he and Mr. Chan had a conversation after we met for the first time and he is a family, he knows me a lot, so he probably told Mr. Chan..."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"So he knew you a lot?"

Alvarine Burgess
"Well we grew up together."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"No, Mr. Chan, the cousin."

Alvarine Burgess
"You cannot confuse me Mr. Chairman."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"I am not trying to confuse you. Listen, I may not be as bright as you, so I maybe eluding myself, I may not be as smart as you, but I want to understand what you're saying and I find it hard to believe that Mr. Chan would propose to a stranger, somebody he doesn't know to go and see a minister and then later on to pay $2,000 to that person. That is really the difficulty that I am having."

Alvarine Burgess
"Okay, can I take it instead of 1,2,3 by A,B,C? I am not being smart. I am trying to explain something. My cousin who knew me well probably he and Mr. Chan engaged in a conversation after they met me."

"Since I stop doing it, I am not interested in whoever is doing it."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"I am though. So I want us to elaborate a little bit on that."

Alvarine Burgess
"And there is where you job comes in Mr. Chairman."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"We need to stop this, because I am not being disrespectful of you. I'll let it slide for a bit. This is not adding up. You say you stop 2013 when the Prime Minister indicated that it was illegal. You stop, you come out of the business, but you just said that you know people are still in the business. So it can't be that you see them at immigration, because you don't go there anymore. We need to be accurate here. What conversation led you to know that the person you met at the market is still in this business?"

Alvarine Burgess
"Like I mentioned, they would say well I'm still there."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Mrs. Burgess you're not coming off very truthful right now you know. It seems to me you don't want to give me their names. You know very well who they are. You don't want to give me their names and you don't want to tell me the circumstance under which you discussed that they are still i this business."

Alvarine Burgess
"I have been nothing but truthful from I was being questioned. So if I had known the names, I would have told you. I cannot give you something that I don't know. I can say this and I don't want to sound rude, because I am not. I am just being truthful. I have seen people come to this inquiry can't recall, don't remember, don't know if they have 10 fingers and 15 toes and it just goes like that. I am being as truthful as I could be. I am giving you everything that I could remember."

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