We also asked the Prime Minister to comment on the arrest of Reynaldo Verde, the Deputy Director of the Belize Tax Service Department. 

As has been widely reported, the FBI has charged him with attempted extortion and interference with commerce by means of extortion. They picked him up twelve days ago while he was transiting through the US. He was returning from an official trip to Brussels, where he attended an international tax conference.

As the minister of finance, the PM is his boss, and when the subject was brought up today, Barrow expressed great dissatisfaction with the way the US authorities handled Verde's initial detention. He said that they refused to allow officials from the Belize Embassy in the US the state level courtesy to look after one of their own citizens. Here's how he explained what happened:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"The United States authorities have not acted in a way that the government of Belize finds satisfactory. Indeed, they have acted in a way that should found the basis of kind of complaint on our behalf, nothing to do with detaining this man, nothing to do with charging this man. It has to do with the fact that the rules of committee, the rules of the relations between states, recognize and accept that each country is entitled to seek to protect its nationals. In the case of Mr. Verde, when he was detained and the embassy of Belize found out, officials from that embassy attempted to see Mr. Verde and were denied what is a well-established international obligation as far as I'm concern on the part of the United States. If they want to tell you it's something to do with the Patriot Act but no, this is some allegation of extortion. So a regular, almost garden variety type criminal offence. How on earth can the government of the United States, supposedly one of the greatest upholders of the rule of law in the universe deny Mr. Verde the right for his councillor and embassy officials to have access to him? They finally allowed personnel from the embassy to see him, I think like the Thursday. Admittedly, the embassy was able to maintain telephone contact with him but I find it deplorable that not only was the embassy not given any information pursuant to their requests, which request were grounded in their obligation to try to look after the welfare of a citizen of Belize. Not only were they denied the request to see and talk to Mr. Verde, they were even denied request for information."

Verde’s attorney in the US has told us that he refutes the charge - which is based in the allegation that he extorted the US principals of Punta Allegre - a development in Corozal.  Verde says they sought him out for tax advice and he urged them to get registered in Belize.