Opposition Leader Didn’t Feel Like Celebrating Tenth

He wasn’t noticed in all the chaos over the simultaneous crowning of two Queens of the Bay, but Opposition Leader John Briceño was officially absent from the Tenth of September official ceremonies in Belize City. It doesn’t happen very often, and he was asked about it today. His response was simple: after the events of September sixth in his native Orange Walk town when he and his supporters came under fire from police and his political rival, he didn’t particularly feel like celebrating. And that feeling extends to Independence Day, where he will be present in Belmopan with all fire and fury in the annual sparring match with Prime Minister Dean Barrow.

John Briceño

John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader

“You expected me to sit down next to these people and smile after they threw tear gas on top of me? When they threw tear gas and the police actually kicked that can right between my legs, when I was giving an interview? When I had already left from there when they told us to leave, because they were using tear gas and I didn’t want people to get hurt? You want me to sit there and smile with them when I see how they just picked up Marisol [Amaya] and just threw her like a sack of potatoes on the ground? They’d never pick up Jules [Vasquez] because they can’t pick him up, but they would pick up Marisol; they’re even sexist in their behavior, they go and chance who they could. They never went at [Fernando] Sanchez from Centaur because he’s a big man, but Marisol – oh, yes, we can pick her up and throw her on the ground. And you want me to sit there and smile with them?  I don’t think it’s going to be on a lighter note, because it’s a serious matter that we are facing right now, that this Government has become the very same thing that they condemned coming into 2008. The Prime Minister was the one, who, every Independence Day in his speech as the Leader of the Opposition attacked our Prime Minister, attacked our government, making all kinds of claims about the issues of corruption and incompetence. And here we fast forward nine years later, to 2017, and we have the most corrupt government ever – this country has ever seen; the most incompetent government this country has ever seen.”