The Senate Hearings continued today in Belmopan where the second pair of sitting UDP Ministers, Rene Montero, and Manuel Heredia Jr., were called to testify before the Senate Select Committee.

You’ll remember last week how the meeting descended into confrontation, when Edmond Castro and Anthony “Bootsâ€￾ Martinez were called to give testimony. Well, today, things returned to the calm, orderly exchanges that the Senators have been having with the witnesses.

But, that doesn’t mean that the Senators went easy on Montero and Heredia. We begin tonight with the questions that the Senate had for the Cayo Central representative Rene Montero. In the Nationality section of Auditor General’s reports on Immigration, she flags a letter from Montero to former Immigration Director Ruth Meighan.

In a letter dated January 9, 2012, Montero wrote to the Immigration Director saying, quote, â€œMs. Meighan, please facilitate me with the following nationality for the ceremonies to be held on the 13th, January 2012â€￾ End quote. 

He then goes on to list off the nationality numbers for 7 applicants, and as you’ve noticed it does not have that qualifying clause all the UDP ministers insist is safe. They all have told both us and the Senate Committee that whenever the letters end with “if all is in orderâ€￾, it’s a clear indication that this is a request, and not a command for Immigration Officers to disregard the law and grant documents that applicants aren’t qualified for.

This letter from Montero did not have any of that, and so, the Senators pounced on it, especially in the context where immigration officers have conceded that these “requestsâ€￾ from ministers are a disguise for directives.

Here’s how Montero explained it to the Senate today:

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"From the desk of Hon. Rene J. Montero in the nationality file of Wael Harmouche address to Ms. Ruth Meighan which stated Ms. Meighan please facilitate me with the following nationality for the ceremonies to be held on January 2012 and she gave what I would think are the file numbers. Are you familiar with this?"

Hon. Rene Montero - UDP Minister
 "Yes, I am familiar."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"With the letter?"

Hon. Rene Montero
"Yes, yes."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Okay did it come from you?"

Hon. Rene Montero
"Yes, it did."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"What did you mean in the letter when you said please facilitate me with the following nationality? Since she seemed uncertain with what you meant, can you clarify for us please?"

Hon. Rene Montero
"But before we move to the word facilitate, I think we should explore the meaning of please. Please means basically to ask someone to consider my request and it is essentially asking a question, it is not a command and it is not stated that they must consider my request and to facilitate means just asking for an assistance for these nationality documents. At no time did I infer that they shouldn't follow the vetting process or that they should proceed with incomplete applications, at no time did I infer that or alluded to that, it was simply a request to facilitate."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Was it on isolated instance? Or is it something that you do - for example this morning we heard from Minister Heredia who said that he did this on behalf of his constituency."

Hon. Rene Montero
"In my case this was in isolated incident, it was made because my office at that time, I was the ministry of agriculture, received a call from immigration. My secretary received a call and she came to me and told me that minister immigration called and they said that they will be assured pretty soon and that the applications for nationality for several of my constituencies were ready and she further told me that the immigration department told her that if I write a letter requesting for these nationalities that it would have been processed."

Michel Chebat - PUP Senator
"Minister what exactly were you asking to be facilitated? Can you specify for us?â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“I was asking for assistance because, what happened is I have an office in Santa Elena, Cayo Central and my officers had told me that he had called immigration office requesting the status for certain nationality documents.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“If they were ready, what would be the need for you to ask for them to be facilitated?â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“Because as I stated before, my secretary received a call from immigration, listing that those bna numbers were ready and immigration further stated if I should write a letter requesting for these they would have been in process.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“But they were already in process weren't they? Because they said they were ready, so that means to say they would have been ready already.â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“Whoever called from immigration stated that if I should write a letter then perhaps it would have been guaranteed they would have been processed by the 12th of January.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“Why was it urgent for you to have them sworn in on 13th January 2012? What was the importance of that day?â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“It was a date set by immigration, they were going to have a ceremony on that day.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“And this had nothing to do with perhaps trying to get these people on the voter’s list before the 2012 elections did it?â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“None at all.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“This word facilitation is getting to me and I just want to ask, the facilitation you were requesting was so that they could be sworn in on the 13th of January right? You wanted them to be sworn in by the 13th of January correct?

Hon. Rene Montero
“Well that was the date given to me.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“You wanted them to meet that particular date?â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“Well yes.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“That would give them sufficient time to get on the voters list before the March 7th election wouldn’t it? That was the last ceremony before the March elections.â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“Senator any person that receives nationality has a right to register, whether be on the same day.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“I understand minister but that is not my question.â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“Who am I to tell who they are going to vote for?â€￾

Michel Chebat
“I’m not asking you that.â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“What you are asking then?â€￾

Michel Chebat
“I’m asking you if facilitation you requested was to ensure that these people would get on the voter’s list before the 7th March election, that’s my question.â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“How would I know that senator?â€￾

Michel Chebat
“By making sure they got their nationality.â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“But whether they get it or not, once they get their nationality senator they have a right to register.â€￾’

Michel Chebat
“I understand.â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“They have a right to register, that is their democratic right.â€￾

Michel Chebat
“I understand that, but that is not my question. My question is that the facilitation you were requesting was to ensure that they would get on the voter’s list?â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“I don’t know, I cannot answer that question.â€￾

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
“Constituence are persons who already voted. People did not qualify for voting at that time. So again my question is what was your motive becoming involved in trying to get them nationality, trying to see their nationality process was carried out?â€￾

Hon. Rene Montero
“The people requested assistance from my office and at that time I thought that it was very important for the family unit to keep together because once the family is together, there is less crime, there is more productivity; as simply as that.â€￾