FBI playing second fiddle in Aruba
by Norman 'Gus' Thomas
Caribbean Net News Senior Regional Correspondent
E-mail: rc@caribbeannetnews.com
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
ORANJESTAD, Aruba: Top sleuths from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Miami have been slithering through
the grass on Aruba for the last 14 days but the role these highly-trained agents
have been forced to play is that of “second fiddle" to the Aruban police, who
have been struggling to crack the case of the missing 18-year-old Natalee
Holloway, whose disappearance on May 30 has drawn the international media to
this Dutch Caribbean island of just over 97,000 people.
Officials at Aruba's Foreign Affairs office
told Caribbean Net News that the Miami-based FBI agents were invited to
the island as observers only, and the Aruban police are the ones "calling the
shots." This has annoyed FBI brass in the US,
prompting one senior FBI agent to wonder aloud: "Are they having an election
down there or are they looking for a missing person? What's this observer
status stuff all about?" According to Judy
Orihuela, FBI spokesperson at the Miami office, the government of Aruba has
only asked for minimal FBI help from the organisation.
FBI sources told Caribbean Net News that there is one agent from
Barbados, along with six from Miami, who are on the ground in Aruba and will
"help" when they are asked to. Police in
Aruba confirmed to Caribbean Net News that the FBI are here as
observers and were part of a team that was allowed to watch from behind a
glass when Aruban police interviewed five men held in connection with
Holloway's disappearance. Limited in
technology, the Aruban police have also sought the help of the FBI in
analysing a DNA sample that was removed from the rear seat of a vehicle
belonging to one of the suspects. Caribbean Net News has learnt the DNA
tests came back negative when tested for blood.
The slow pace of the investigation has angered many, forcing Holloway's mother
to make public criticism of the slow pace.
The case has caused great embarrassment for the Aruba authorities. In one
instance, the Deputy Commissioner told the media that there was a confession
and that one of the accused was leading the police to the scene of Police.
Minutes after, that line was changed and officials had no more to say about
the “confession”, saying rather that they had reached a "critical" point in
their in their investigations.
No one has made any further comment on what
the Deputy Commissioner had said earlier.
However, Holloway's mother is of the view that the authorities could be
seeking to protect the three young men who were last to see her daughter. The
trio told police they had dropped off the 18-year-old at her hotel following a
party session. Police, when pressed, told
Caribbean Net News that video tapes from surveillance cameras at the hotel
show no evidence of this.
Meanwhile, FBI agents will stay in Aruba and
continue to observe from behind the glass, until they called upon to run any
further errands.
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