Belize: A case has garnered public attention as a Honduran woman is being deported from Belize after a fight with another woman over the same man.
Maria Lilliana Sandoval, age 34, confirmed in the court that she broke several windows of a Kia Sorento which belongs to a Belizean insurance manager during an altercation between them. She was fined $900 which included $5 for court costs to be settled by December 31, 2025.
After she pleaded guilty, Immigration officers revealed that Sandoval had stayed past the date of her visitor’s visa, which expired in August 2022. She was then fined $1,000 for the immigration offence and was given a deportation order to return to Honduras.
In court, Sandoval appeared with injuries and said that she was attacked by the other woman after she was in the car with Cruz’s husband. She claimed the man is her common-law husband of eight years and the father of her two children born in Belize.
Sandoval requested the court to be lenient, saying she did not want to leave her children alone. However, the court denied her request and the deportation will still go ahead in the coming weeks. At present, she is being held in the custody of the Belize Central Prison until her removal.
Locals are furious and shocked over this case. One of them said on Facebook, “What stupidity, you fought for the man, and yesterday in jail and the idiot calm with the other apprentice in man is not worth it,” while another one wrote, “Who is the Insurance Manager? She is responsible for a child not having a mother. I feel she have man too.”