‘Politricks’ is the cause of arrests in Orange Walk

Village Council Elections got underway in a number of villages around the country this past weekend. The elections were once not politicized but of late, the results are used as barometers to measure the political clout of the two major parties in rural communities.  With General Elections three years away, there is already controversy and turmoil brewing amongst party stalwarts of the ruling United Democratic Party and the opposition People’s United Party.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano traveled up north to the Orange Walk District where he took a look at the political climate in one village which held its elections this past Sunday.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

What was supposed to be a peaceful election of village councilors on Sunday ended in utter chaos as supporters of both parties engaged in an all out confrontation with each other following the results of the voting.  Shortly after one o’clock that afternoon word of the PUP’s victory in Nuevo San Juan spread like wildfire among residents who later gathered to celebrate the win.  What they did not foresee was the trouble ahead.  Newly elected village chairman Isaias Blanco told News Five what triggered the melee.

Isaias Blanco, Village Council Chairman

Isaias Blanco

“Three supporters of the UDP attacked my father, Juan Blanco, three of them.  So when the crowd saw all that what they have to do?  They have to defend so they ran and that’s when all the thing happened.  The fight started and everything but because of that they were the ones that provoked my father.  He was walking alone, a fifty year old man; what can a fifty year old man do?  And the crowd saw that because he was on the floor, all three of them were kicking him on his head, his abdomen and everything so the crowd saw that and they ran to defend him and that was when everything started.”

And when it was all said and done several people were left suffering from various injuries and Orange Walk Police had a laundry list of names of villagers who would be charged with related offences.

Ricardo Blanco, Brother of Village Council Chairman

“I was walking to my home when my father and my wife were coming to find me then Mr. Ruben Muy, Santiago Muy and Alfaro Muy attacked my father and my father dropped on the street.  So I ran about approximately like, not far, like it took me like five minutes to reach where my father was lying on the street. So they start kicking my father so as I reached I try to pick up my father and then Mr. Ruben Muy attacked me and stabbed me; and he take out a knife.  So when I declined to pick up my father he do me so with the knife, with a small like I think it was a knife small like this.  So I just do so and I fall then Mr. Ruben Muy take out again the knife then he di try stab me when Ms. Magdalena, who presently won also the council, slammed Mr. Ruben Muy hand with a stick.”

While Muy and other members of the United Democratic Party who were involved in the altercation declined comment well known nurse and community activist Angelita Sanchez, who was also arrested, told News Five the uproar was politically motivated.

Angelita Sanchez

Angelita Sanchez, PUP Supporter

“I can say that all this is done because of politics. It has to do with the Village Council Elections because the last elections we had five P.U.P. candidates and two U.D.P. candidates.  Now at this elections the seven of them were successful at the elections so they are hurt and this is the way that they act because they are hurt because they were giving money, the persons that got the money said they give us money.”

Voters say that Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega promised to deliver Nuevo San Juan as a new U.D.P. electorate.

Isaias Blanco

“He, as I was speaking, was campaigning very hard in this village.  In my village people, the same UDP people were saying he gave me some groceries, boxes of groceries, you want to see it?  Yes, if you want to show it to me that’s right, that’s no problem.  They show it to me, money, promising grants, everything.  And I told the people you know me, you know who I am and if you are willing to give me the vote I am sure that you will not regret it.”

What they might regret, however, is taking part in the brawl that ensued.  Today at the Magistrate’s Court in Orange Walk Town about fifteen villagers were being charged with offences ranging from wounding to aggravated assault and bail was being set in four digit figures.

Ricardo Blanco

Ricardo Blanco

“We come into court, the magistrate give us bail of two thousand each so I think we should send a message to Mr. Vega if he could please think it over and have to look both sides.  I think if Mr. Vega and Johnny and from both sides sit down and dialogue because we are in a village and we are like families.”

Until both parties are able to resolve their political differences Nuevo San Juan will remain a house divided. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.

In the melee, the PUP leader spent the night at the Orange Walk Police Station and his party is claiming it has won in seven of the eleven villages contested last weekend. Of note is that in Independence in the south, the councilors elected were on the blue slate while the U.D.P. won the chairmanship by six votes. Word is that the P.U.P. will challenge these results because there were a number of spoilt votes and further, the number of votes did not reconcile at final tally.