Ali refuses Belizean jurist’s resignation in light of US visa revocation

Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, 9:16 by Written By Denis Chabrol

Chairman of the MV Barima Commission of Inquiry, Belizean Justice Godfrey Smith on Tuesday said President Irfaan Ali rejected his offer to resign fillowing the United States’ (US) revocation of his visa.

Briefing reporters ahead of the resumption of public hearings into the July 18 capsizing of the MV Barima ferry that claimed the lives of more than 100 persons, he confirmed that he offered Dr Ali to quit his position as Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry.

“As a matter of professionalism, even though I have acted in no untoward way whatsoever, the professional thing to do” was to inform the President what had happened and to “offer to him to resign in the event he believes that it could anyway hinder, hamper, tame my role as chairman of the commission, and he emphatically declined the offer.”

Justice Smith, former Belize Foreign Minister and Attorney General, said he also offered the state-owned University of Belize to resign and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who  is also the Minister of Education, to resign but that too was rejected.

Mr Smith said the US embassy in Belize declined to give him a reason for the visa revocation, leaving him to speculate that because, as university chairman, he had invited Chinese academics to participate in excganges and arranged study tours for Belizean youths he ran afoul of the US.

“I am aware that the United States government has indicated that it frowns upon any expansion of China’s footprint in Latin America, and all I am left to surmise is that my activities as chairman of the union, having visited China and sending students there, is a message and a signal that that should not be done,” he said.

Belize is one of three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) mrmber states that has diplomatic relations with Taiwan, a US ally, instead of communist-ruled China. Thr others are St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Lucia.

Guyana and the US have forged exceptionally strong ties in security, defence, energy, rade and economic cooperation.

Guyana also maintains its One China policy, though there had been a 24-hour diplomatic crisis in February 2021 after the US Embassy had welcomed Taiwan’s decision to open a trade office in Guyana. That decision was overturned after China registered its disapproval vehemently.