Opposition Leader Calls on John Saldivar to Resign
The text message referencing Minister Saldivar was also the focus of a statement by Opposition Leader John Briceño. He is calling on the Prime Minister to fire Saldivar from his cabinet. Speaking on the scandal that is rocking the U.D.P. government, Briceño asserted that the text messages must contain important content for the prosecution to submit it as part of the evidence list. Briceño says that the text messages should prove Saldivar’s alleged intimate connection with the alleged fraudster. The P.U.P. Leader is also demanding that Saldivar step down as area representative of Belmopan.
John Briceño
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“Probably it is only the Prime Minister that is trying to behave as if John Saldivar is some way or the other is not involved in this case. Once again, John Saldivar is disgracing this country. That has happened several times by being associated with the wrong kind of person. We already know the unfortunate issue of Paster Lue. Now here comes again now with a massive fraudster that is locked up in the United States. I think that the proverbial noose is tightening around John Saldivar and around of course the Prime Minister’s mini me, the Attorney General who tried to say what’s going on. If the Prime Minister is trying to down play this issue about the text messages then we need to ask ourselves why is it that the Justice Department is fighting so hard to keep these text messages as part of the evidence that they are presenting in the U.S. court in Utah. I think in Spanish we have a simple word: “basta,” like enough; we just fed up of this crowd. The Prime Minister needs to act and he needs to act now and stop defend all the wrongdoing that has happened under the most corrupt government this country has ever seen in its history. The Prime Minister needs to do the right thing. He needs to fire John Saldivar from the cabinet and then John Saldivar should, at least for the first time, do something right which is to resign from the National Assembly as the represented for the good people of Belmopan.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Sir, in the case of the beheading for Pastor Llewelyn Lucas and the connection between Mason and John Saldivar, I think back then the Prime Minister had suspended him until they carried out an internal investigation. In this case, do you think that should be done even though the contents of those text messages haven’t been revealed as yet?”
John Briceño
“Well the contents of those text messages are going to be revealed more sooner than later, one. But two, if the wants to get to the bottom of it all he needs to do is to call John H. Huber from the Justice Department in Utah and say we want to take a look at those documents. It may not be presented in a U.S. court, but it can be brought to Belize where he can look at those text messages, he can look at the wire transfers. He can find out exactly which minister got twenty-five thousand U.S. dollars a month for political favours. If the Prime Minister is serious he can do something about it.”
Hipolito Novelo
“In terms of the twenty five thousand dollars the PM Barrow said that there is no law against campaign financing? The wrongdoing would be that he lied to cabinet.”
John Briceño
“But there was no campaign going on at that time. This man was flying John Saldivar and his group, his friends all over the place in a private plane. And you need to ask yourself, why is this man doing this for John Saldivar? Because he is pretty, he is looks good, because he looks smart? It is simply because he was a minister in the U.D.P. government.”
