P.U.P. demands Elrington stop being ‘petty’ and ‘personal’
John Briceno
On Wednesday we raised the issue of the back and forth over the Maritime Areas Act with P.U.P. leader John Briceño. His shadow minister for foreign affairs, Eamon Courtenay, has been leading the charge, with the full backing of Independence Hall, to correct a decades-old issue in advance of a vote on taking the unfounded Guatemalan claim to the International Court of Justice. An amendment to the Maritime Areas Act proposes to restore Belize’s full maritime territory in the south between Ranguana Caye and the Sarstoon River. But in response to their opponents’ taunts about his leadership, Briceño says that the U.D.P. and Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington need to get their own house in order. He also says that while Courtenay shadow minister, the P.U.P. can call on many others to take up the job in their next sojourn in Belmopan.
John Briceño, Leader, P.U.P.
“I don’t know why the Foreign Minister is being so personal – he comes across as being petty and personal and forgetting what is the real issue. The real issue is that we have lost control of the Sarstoon River under his watch and the U.D.P., that right now we cannot travel freely in that area. Under his watch, we are now at a position where they refuse to work with the Opposition; this has never happened before. When we were in government, we made sure that the Opposition was always involved, but under his watch and the U.D.P. right now it is very difficult to be able to work with them. Those are the issues that the Foreign Minister is supposed to be looking after, and not attacking Senator Courtenay like a child. I think that is none of his business, what’s going to happen. What we know for sure is that whenever they call the next election, we are going to have a government that is going to be led by the People’s United Party, and that once we get in there we are going to give the necessary attention and importance to addressing the unfounded claim that Guatemala has over Belize. And we have many qualified people, like Senator Courtenay and many other people that can come in, do the work well, represent us well, and make the Belizean people proud of their Foreign Minister.”
