Councilor Roger Espejo Vs. Carlos Perdomo: who will take reign of Caribbean Shores

General elections are more than two years away, but the horses are already lining up at the gate. In the Caribbean Shores constituency, the campaign for divisional convention is heating up. The upstart Councilor Roger Espejo is taking on the incumbent, the Minister of Defense, Carlos Perdomo, an old hand in the division. News Five’s Jose Sanchez had a one on one with Espejo and here’s his report.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

Constituents of Caribbean Shores will go to the poll to select their next UDP standard bearer on December fifth. A standoff between the incumbent Carlos Perdomo and Councilor Roger Espejo is in the works.  Espejo’s slogan is Promising Less, Delivering More and Espejo says he never told the incumbent that he wouldn’t run against him.

Roger Espejo

Roger Espejo

“The part about not running is unfortunately a misconception. I have never declared and categorically promised to anyone that I would not run for Caribbean shores.  Promising less, delivering more. So it wasn’t anything new when I brought that into my political life. I believe that I rose to the challenge after the hurricane. We, because we worked as a team, we worked tirelessly to cleaned up the city and to provide relief to those that were marginalized and those disenfranchised by the hurricane and that was something normal. Something normal I do everyday given the limited resources afforded to us at the council and to NEMO. That was a NEMO initiative of brokering the best possible service to the people right after the hurricane.”

His opponent is drowning in a national security scandal over the issuances of visas to people intending to use illegal means to reach the United States.  Instead of speaking about intentions to implement policies or be accountable for the lack of good governance, the area representative simply blamed the previous government for doing it first.

Carlos Perdomo, Minister of Immigration and Defense

“You guys are full of hypocrisy. At the rate we are allowing legitimate visas, it would take us ten years to reach one year that you gave one thousand one hundred and sixty visas. Talk about that and you look at the record that we have. Those papers that you read  are all legal documents.”

Roger Espejo

carlos perdomo

“The fact that we have an ongoing investigation. I don’t know that I can give you a qualified answer on that. I am not involved in any way with the media. I see the news like any other person.”

Jose Sanchez

“But don’t you think an independent investigation to the clear the name or the air would be the best thing for you to win on? Have his name cleared through an independent investigation?”

Roger Espejo

“I believe that any good politician or any good servant, public servant would want to go that way. But again that is not a question for me to answer. In politics, misconceptions come alive sometimes and it is unfortunate that this event arose at this time for the incumbent. I do hope just like everybody else that a reasonable outcome is arrived at and I hope that it not a black eye to the government or the party.”

Jose Sanchez

“But people may vote for you may not necessarily vote for you in the convention but they may be voting out someone associated with the visa and immigration scandal. You do realize that?”

Roger Espejo

“That is inherent to conventions and elections.”

Carlos Perdomo

“Yes, the immigration department isn’t perfect. The immigration department isn’t perfect and you are right the airplanes landing at the airport is scandalous and the immigration officers that have been arrested have confessed. That it is not people in government at the top that are crooked. They have confessed that they were involved in something illegal and that is the illegal part of this scandal.  But those visas that you read out those are legal and yes we collect revenue on them.”

Passports mailed from around the world to the Immigration Department for visas to be signed then sent back all become a legal part of a human trafficking ring of Sri- Lankans, Somalis and Chinese who use Belize as a spring board on their illegal journey to the USA.  Since the government does not intend to have an independent investigation, then Caribbean Shores constituents may well be Perdomo’s judge and jury on December fifth at Trinity Methodist School. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.