Opposition Leader Chides PM Briceño Over Guatemala Invasion Comments

Shyne Barrow

Earlier today, Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow also weighed in on the comments made by Prime Minister Briceño on Wednesday, as it relates to the Belize/Guatemala territorial dispute.  It is unclear whether the head of government misspoke or if his words were deliberate and meant to be controversial.  This morning, during a press conference held by the United Democratic Party, the Leader of the Opposition raked PM Briceño over the coals for those remarks.

Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“We all know that the prime minister has large shortcomings.  We know that he can’t think properly, he can’t speak properly and this is just another example, a very embarrassing example of his inabilities and his unsuitability to lead this country because something like that could be taken and while he’s trying to chastise Wil Maheia, what is more agitating and what escalates things more than you telling a country that you want to invade the country?  Like what is he thinking?  But then we know the prime minister, his brain is empty, his head is empty and that’s just the reality.  I mean, I think there’s nobody in Belize that when he does these things we have become use to the incompetence.  We have become use to him being an airhead and it’s unfortunate that it comes at the cost our national security. But what we should be talking about is when the prime minister and Courtenay say that we only have a thousand troops and Guatemala has twenty thousand troops.  We need to increase our military.  That is something that as prime minister in a UDP government, my cabinet and I will look at increasing our military.  We cannot wait for anybody to save us. As we see with the Sarstoon, no one is interfering.  And while Courtenay was big and bad when he was in opposition, Johnny was big and bad, they were right there with Wil Maheia in the boat going to Sarstoon.  Now Wil Maheia noh fi go da di Sarstoon.”