No resolution of UDP-Speaker rift

One of those Belize City meetings would be with Opposition Leader Dean Barrow, whose party decided not to boycott today’s sitting of the National Assembly out of respect for the Mexican President. But while Barrow put on a good face for Vicente Fox, he told News 5 that peace talks held on Monday with the P.M. and Speaker of the House did not go well.

Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
?We felt that while it would have been a very effective gesture in terms of signalling our tremendous and continuing displeasure with the Speaker, that it might also have been misinterpreted, that our public might have felt that we were embroiling the Mexican President in a local crossfire, or at the very least, disrespecting the Mexican President. And while we would not have seen it in those terms, we felt that we couldn?t run the risk of having the public not understand. So we thought that the safer thing to do was to appear today.?

Janelle Chanona
?How close are you to a resolution with the Speaker regarding her decisions??

Dean Barrow
?Not at all close. In fact, it?s further away than ever because I met with her yesterday afternoon, I met with her and the Prime Minister at two o?clock up here in Belmopan and I cannot say that there was any progress made at that meeting. So we are still determined to proceed with the steps that we had conceived before we knew of this special sitting and of the visit of President Fox.