PM weighs in on Marco Tulio Mendez

Dean Barrow

P.U.P. Orange Walk East Area Representative, Doctor Marco Tulio Mendez, was arrested and formally arraigned in Magistrate’s Court last week, on six charges of aggravated assault of an indecent nature. He was immediately suspended as Chairman of the P.U.P.’s northern caucus, and also removed from any official function and responsibility within the Party. Just about everybody has weighed in on the issue, officially and unofficially. But the Prime Minister hasn’t said anything, so when we got the opportunity outside the Charles Bartlett Hyde building today, the question was put to him.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“I am absolutely astonished over the fact that people generally don’t seem to have focused on the clear difference between the way the U.D.P. handled the situation with Penner and the way the P.U.P. is handling the situation with Marco Tulio Mendez. We in effect constructively expelled Penner. I see the leader of the opposition trying to tip-toe through the tulips. There is nothing forthright at all about his response to the issue and I would hope that the media will continue to challenge him on the lack of any forthrightness in terms of the situation. Admittedly, the man has not yet been tried, the man has not yet been found guilty—may never be—but there is no doubt that complaints have been lodged by minors leading to his having been charged. It is outrageous and I feel that, legal proceedings aside, he and his party should be called to account in an unambiguous fashion over what has happened and I don’t see it taking place.”

[Disclaimer: In interest of the children’s identities, we are removing the portion of the Prime Minister’s interview that discloses who they are…]