Saldivar Confirms Quantum of Mason Contribution to Bandits

John Saldivar

Minister Frank Papa Mena, has admitted he received ten thousand dollars for his bye-election campaign in 2015 from William Mason. While everybody is keeping their distance with a pole a mile long, Minister Saldivar on Monday, admitted that he had received in excess fifty thousand dollars from Mason for his football club, the Belmopan Bandits. Saldivar says there were no strings attached to the contribution and that he has not met with Mason since last September.

Reporter
“And there were no exchange of phone calls, text message, nothing like that since last year?”

John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
“I have not had any contact with Mr. Mason since last year, that’s what I’ve said and I stand by that.”

Reporter

“Of course he might have caught feelings, so to say, when you severed your relationship with him. Was there any such thing?”

John Saldivar
“I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to him so I don’t know what his feelings were, I don’t know anything about that and I won’t make any assumptions about it.”

Reporter

“He was a contributor to your football club. Did he ever make any contact to you to say, “What’s going on? I contributed to you and you’re not talking to me anymore?”

John Saldivar
“I basically disassociated myself from him and I think that speaks for itself. I disassociated myself.”

Reporter
“Sir while you’ve admitted that yes there were contributions, can you give us an amount?”

John Saldivar
“Well it was over a period of time but I would say in excess of fifty thousand for sure. Semi-pro football is not a cheap venture as you know and he hasn’t contributed for the last two seasons. He is not a part of my organization anymore.”

Reporter

“Were there any conditions to that contribution?”

John Saldivar
“Conditions like what? No, no conditions. He represented himself as somebody who loves sports. He had been contributing to other semi-pro football teams in the country at the time and he decided he wanted to help my team.”

Reporter
“When he contributed to your football club, how was this done? Check? Cash? What?”

John Saldivar
“Cash.”

Reporter
“Didn’t that raised any flags?”

John Saldivar
“What kind of flags would it raise Marisol? In the general course of things, we solicit sponsorships for various activates that we do, not just football but even community activities. Many of these are given by cash, that didn’t raised any red flags at all and like I said, it was one payment of fifty thousand dollars, it was over a period of time.”