Is There a Serious Rift in the U.D.P.?

Is there a very serious divide in the ranks of the U.D.P. following Sunday’s Convention? A movement which we can call G-fourteen to follow tradition of political mutiny? That was the word out of Belmopan today as reports emerged that John Saldivar held a pre-Cabinet meeting at his home with the Ministers who supported him, which meant that when Cabinet started at ten none of them were present. There were further reports that when those Ministers did show up they arrived with a firm request that Gaspar Vega retain the position of Deputy Prime Minister and it not be bestowed on Faber. The speculation which spread like wildfire seemed credible, since it is no secret that a vast majority of Cabinet ministers supported Saldivar and not Faber, and there is indeed bad blood between both camps. As they emerged from Cabinet this morning, none of the ministers would speak to the media, stating only that what happens in Cabinet stays in Cabinet. But News Five managed to get comment from the man himself, Patrick Faber, who confirmed that indeed there was a meeting at Saldivar’s house this morning.

Patrick Faber

Patrick Faber, Deputy Party Leader, U.D.P.

“I do know that they indeed had a meeting because the cabinet meeting started a bit late, but I can confirm to you that there was no such demand made on the Prime Minister; that, in fact, once the members of the cabinet who were late CAM in, we conducted the people’s business first. We did the minutes and we did of course the business that was on hand. After which we had a discussion on Sunday’s convention that started with the Prime Minister making a statement and then I myself making a statement, talking about of course my commitment to making sure that we heal as I was aware that in fact several of my colleagues, who did not support, were possibly unhappy. And the way I judge that of course is because of from the amount of them who made some effort to say congratulations; there were only I think four of them.  So I realized that things weren’t all well with them and so I made that commitment. I had gotten to Belmopan earlier and had a private meeting with the Prime Minister in his office and as a result I had already made a commitment to him that I was going to do everything that was within my power to make sure that I extend an olive branch to my colleagues because I knew that their feelings were still very raw. I kinda got a hint of that, as I said. And so that was the way it went. And then after I spoke, Minister Saldivar spoke and we went around the table sharing. And you know people said what they didn’t like and we agreed on all sides that we will work on making sure that things were healed. We admitted that it may take us a little while, but that everybody was open. Some healing actually happened in the room this morning and there is no truth at all to the colleagues making any such demand on the Prime Minister.”