P.U.P. Says Its Shades of Puerto Azul

There’s more on the proposed international airport. The People’s United Party today reacted to the announcement of a proposed multimillion dollar international airport on San Pedro. Calling it ‘Déjà Vu All Over Again,’ the P.U.P. says that the news that the investor is actually a realtor based in Miami with no experience in building or in airport development should come as “absolutely no surprise to Belizeans.” It goes on to name previous instances where purported investors have been paraded with Ministers all too happy to pose to the cameras without doing due diligence. The P.U.P. notes that the ‘Airport Investor and Developer’ appears to be nothing more than a con-artist with a shady past that includes allegations of major fraud, voter fraud and extortion. The party says the airport pictures bring to mind the photos of senior U.D.P. Ministers Manuel Heredia Junior and Erwin Contreras as well as Kim Simplis Barrow photographed in Cannes with the failed developers and stakeholders at the launch of the botched mega-million-dollar exclusive resort, Puerto Azul. In a similar case, U.D.P. ministers were taken in by another conman, William Danny Mason, who reportedly had a “special bodyguard of police personnel, thanks to the then Police Minister John Saldivar. Mason was paraded in Belize as an Emergency Services expert, and almost every member of cabinet was a regular at his home in Belmopan….The U.D.P. ministers who loved Mason deserted the sinking ship like rats, but the country has paid the price.” The release ends by saying that “the country cannot risk more fallout arising from the incompetence and stupidity of our U.D.P. Ministers.”