About-turn: Majority Partners Assert Control; Say Rebecca Rath is Still Miss Belize

Rebecca Rath

The plot thickens in the Miss Belize saga. Twenty-four hours ago, Miss Belize Rebecca Rath appeared to be stripped of her title by pageant director Opal Enriquez. Her family had come out strongly against Enriquez’s management of the run-up to Rath’s appearance at the Miss Universe pageant in January and Enriquez hit back on her way out. Marcia Moody was chosen as successor and was said to be on her way to Miss International Pageant in Japan later this year. And there would be no 2017 pageant.  But tonight, Rebecca Rath remains as Miss Belize Universe 2016 and official beauty ambassador of Belize. There will be a pageant to crown her successor, according to the majority partners of Queen of the Jewel Limited, the license holders for Miss Universe in Belize. And Enriquez has resigned as pageant director.  In a statement issued this afternoon, those partners, Orson Elrington and Reynaldo Malik, say that Enriquez unilaterally decided on the fate of Rath and supposed successor Marcia Moody without consulting them. Elrington explained their subsequent moves in an interview this afternoon via telephone.

Orson Elrington

On the Phone: Orson Elrington, Co-Owner, Queen of the Jewel Ltd.

“On a matter of clarification, she is not the former co-owner; she remains an owner – that is not something that we can remove from her. The company has three owners, that being Opal Enriquez, myself and Reynaldo Malik. When I received notice of the press release from Miss Belize Rebecca Rath on Saturday, I immediately contacted the family and spoke to them and told them what was my personal decision and that I could not speak on it as a company until I had been able to have consultation with my other partner to see whether he was involved in the decision-making as to this process. He was out of the country and just returned yesterday; and when he returned yesterday we had the meeting to discuss the matter and we came about the decisions that are in the press release. Effectively, we were not consulted about the supposed decisions that are made in the press release, and therefore we though it important to clarify to the public that as two thirds of the company, that how that was not a decision made by us, who are the ultimate decision-makers for the company. All decisions such as that should be made by the majority, and most definitely not one individual. And that is our position.”

The release issues an apology to Rath and her family for what it calls a “colossal overstep” and asks them to maintain their relationship with the organization, as well as a farewell to Enriquez thanking her for her services to the organization. We are yet to hear from Rath.