Citing Threats of Retaliation, Senate Committee Chair Suspends Public Hearing

Today’s session of the senate special select committee was suspended at the eleventh hour.  Ordinarily, all announcements pertaining to these matters are released through the Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly.   This morning, however, the decision to postpone the weekly hearing was made public via a series of text messages circulated to the media.  It follows a last minute request made by the People’s United Party in the aftermath of last week’s fiasco in the gallery of the Assembly Building.  The embarrassing incident involved several henchmen from the ruling United Democratic Party, threatening and then assaulting Marisol Amaya of Krem TV as well as the cameramen for Channel Seven and Plus TV.  The mob included the House macebearer, Brian “Yellow Man” Audinett and the U.D.P. Chairman Alberto August.  This past Tuesday, August admitted he had organized the group and took full responsibility for the fiasco, promising to return to the proceedings.  The P.U.P. made the request to allow cooler heads to prevail since its party supporters would also have gone to today’s session in support of Senator Eamon Courtenay, who has been targeted by August and his gang.  There has since been public outcry for action to be taken against “Yellow Man” Audinett, in much the same way that Cayo South Area Representative Julius Espat was suspended from the House in August 2016.  We’ll have more on the call for Yellow Man’s removal elsewhere in this newscast.  This morning, News Five sat with Senator Aldo Salazar, Chair of the Senate Special Select Committee, to discuss the abrupt suspension of the meeting.

Aldo Salazar

Aldo Salazar, Chairman, Senate Special Select Committee

“I’ve heard today especially, people saying, I know one, certain persons in the media and the public saying that this decision to cancel today’s hearing was a deliberate attempt by myself to stifle the proceedings.  I want to dismiss that out of hand.  My intention was to proceed.  I had every intention to be in Belmopan today.  I don’t see how putting off a hearing for one week, even if that was my intention, I don’t see how putting it off for one week can stifle the hearing.  I want to make it absolutely clear that the decision to cancel today’s hearing was one made out of collegiality.  So I would have expected that certain persons, surrogates of the, particularly the opposition, would not have taken to that, putting forward the blame on the senate committee, or on the direction that I’m putting on it because that is absolutely not the case.  Our intention, my intention is to have this concluded as soon as possible and you can mark my words, I am not going to take considerations for adjournment lightly at all.  This is one that was really made out of collegiality, upon a request that came from very high in the People’s United Party.”