P.U.P. Protests Outside P.M.’s Press Conference

Francis Fonseca

As early as six-thirty this morning, Police were on high alert at the Biltmore Plaza, putting up barricade and roping off a section of the parking lot. All that activity was because the P.U.P. had decided to upstage the PM’s Petrocaribe party with a protest. They showed up at around ten, just over two hundred spirited protesters led by P.U.P. Leader Francis Fonseca and the ever popular Garifuna drums. Carrying placards and chanting non-stop, they circled on the road in front of the hotel to send the message that the P.U.P. is still alive, and that this is only the beginning.

Francis Fonseca, P.U.P. Leader

“It’s not about numbers. We learnt about the prime minister’s press conference yesterday and we organized a protest because we have to take every opportunity to educate the Belizean people about this very dangerous Petrocaribe law that he has passed in the national assembly. We are not against the Petrocaribe program, we’ve made that very clear; it is the P.U.P. that initiated that program. But we are very much against the manner in which this U.D.P. government and this prime minister is implementing and executing that program. It is all about using that money for their own party, political purposes and using it as if they have to account to no one. And the law that Mister Barrow passed two weeks ago is all about that. It is a good law for Mister Barrow, but it is a bad and dangerous law for Belize. It is a law that strikes at the very heart of governance in Belize; it is a law that strikes at democracy in Belize and it is not only the P.U.P. that is saying that. The churches have said it, the Chamber of Commerce has said it, Civil Society has said it; the N.T.U.C.B. has said it. All of us are saying that this is a bad law for Belize. it must be repealed and so today we are taking a stand at the opportunity that Mister Barrow is having a press conference to bring this matter to light, to bring it to the attention of the Belizean people and this will continue and lead up to wider, larger, more national protest across the country because we believe that the Belizean people want this bad law to go.”

Cordel Hyde, P.U.P. Standard Bearer, Lake I

“We didn’t elect Gods when there was election. We elected men, mere mortals even make mistakes, they commit sins. Dean Barrow is not god. His cabinet ministers are not disciples; they are ordinary men. But what happen? We have allowed them to get away with a lot of things over a period of time. We’ve allowed them to get away with the Penner passport scandal; we’ve allowed them to get away with the shenanigans at lands department; we’ve allowed them to get away with the rosewood scandal; we’ve allowed them to get away with visa scandals at the immigration department; we’ve allowed them to continue to spend millions of dollars each year on a select few attorneys when majority of people in this country are struggling. We’ve allowed them to get away with that so I am not surprised by this move by Dean.”

Mike Rudon

“You are known as one of the more militant members of the P.U.P.  is today a sign of bigger things to come?”

Cordel Hyde

“Yah, we just the warm up the battery lee bit; make sure that everything ina place…make sure we alive, make sure people know we deh bout. This is just the start. We are ready my brother; we will do what we have to do because that is the job of the opposition. If there is an obscene law, then it is our job to go against that law. If there is a law that allows some government ministers to do what they want, then we have a responsibility to stand up against that law. And frankly, I am really regretful that we haven’t been doing this for a long time. Whenever there is something that is wrong, stand up and let them know that we don’t agree with it. That is what we are supposed to be doing, every time they do something wrong; we have to keep them accountable. You know what they do all the time, dehn say P.U.P. commit all kind of gross, immoral thing during their time in government. Brother that is why we are out of government. We deh outta government because we made a lotta mistakes during our time. We’ve been losing elections since 2006, but what they do, they keep us looking in the rear view, whilst they do a lot of shenanigans going forward. We need to hold these people accountable my brother. That’s what we should do as the opposition and that’s what we are starting to do today.”