Senator Elena Smith She Expected to be Attacked

Thousands of union members are said to have come out in the anti-corruption demonstration staged by the N.T.U.C.B. in Belize City last Thursday. It is no secret that of the ten unions represented, the B.N.T.U. support was overwhelming, accounting for the majority of protesters.  Senator Smith says that she is being attacked because of the stance she has taken against the government, but she is up to it.

Elena Smith, Union Senator

“If you want to diminish support all you need to do is to find the leader and attack the leader because when you do that, you know that the way we behave that persons would tend to believe anything that their party says and so they would automatically believe what the Prime Minister said. And he said what he was told. According to the meeting, he said what he was told. So I know that on Thursday, we had—as I said before—thirty buses coming in, we had a boat coming from San Pedro; we had four hundred and odd teachers from Belize City. B.N.T.U. had two thousand or more teachers out there on Thursday. We had the biggest showing and so for this to not go further, I suppose you then discredit the person or the leader with the most support.”

Elena Smith

Reporter

“Are you concerned that this is the approach that they are taking?”

Elena Smith

“Well it is an expected approach. I don’t think that we expected anything different in the climate that we have right now. Too many things happening right now with this government and so everything that is brought to them that they might not agree with would trigger some kind of negative reaction. So it’s expected. I didn’t expect anything differently.”