By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP):
The Kolbe Central Prison is searching for a new leader once again, after Chief Executive Officer George Gomez was abruptly dismissed on July 7, less than fifty days after fully taking charge.
The sudden move, first reported by 7News, caught many off guard. Gomez was no outsider parachuted into the role. He had understudied Virgilio Murillo, the veteran who led the prison for the past two decades before retiring, and had been serving as Acting CEO since December 2025, when the then CEO fell ill. He formally assumed the top job on May 19.
Yet barely seven weeks later, Gomez was hand-delivered a dismissal letter and escorted from the prison grounds.
Board chairman Francis Woods, who has stepped in as Acting CEO, downplayed the development in a phone interview with 7News, confirming that Gomez left on July 7 and outlining the way forward. “Definitely, I will assume all CEO’s duties reviewing all the data, all the policies. I will be there a lot of the time and then we will work with the team from the board members to recruit another potential CEO,” Woods told the station.
Notably, no reason for the dismissal has been made public.
Gomez, for his part, is not going quietly. Speaking with 7News, he maintained that the termination was without merit, saying a lot of good work was being done under his tenure and that a lot more could have been achieved.
The abrupt exit leaves questions hanging over the leadership of the country’s prison at a time of heightened public focus on crime and security. For now, the board says the search for a new CEO will begin, with Woods holding the reins in the interim.
The post Prison CEO fired and escorted out after less than 50 days appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): The Kolbe Central Prison is searching for a new leader once again, after Chief Executive Officer George Gomez was abruptly dismissed on July 7, less than fifty days after fully taking charge. The sudden move, first reported by 7News, caught many off guard. Gomez was no outsider parachuted into
The post Prison CEO fired and escorted out after less than 50 days appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.