U.D.P. Writes U.S. Secretary of State Blinken; “Show Me the Proof”

The United Democratic Party has written to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, requesting evidence to prove its assertion that former Minister of National Security John Saldivar is, in fact, a significantly corrupt individual.  The correspondence comes several weeks after the three-time Belmopan Area Representative was designated by the United States government.  As a result, Saldivar and his immediate family have been sanctioned from setting foot on U.S. soil.  In the wake of that classification, Party Leader Shyne Barrow informed the media last week that a special committee will be convening this Friday, December second, to determine Saldivar’s fate as a candidate with ambitions to represent Belmopan as a U.D.P. standard bearer in the next general elections.  According to Barrow, the matter involving the allegations brought against Saldivar should be concluded by December ninth. So, is a request seeking proof of Saldivar’s so-called corruption a fool’s errand given the timeline, and the nature of the request?

Mike Peyrefitte

Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, United Democratic Party

“We have a member of our party who is looking to enter into a convention to represent our party and a designation is given, like the one that was given, not only against him, but his wife, his children, a minor child, everybody except the dog.  And so, we want to see what evidence they are depending on or what evidence they used to come to that decision so that the U.D.P. may look at that evidence and come to our own decision. So we just wanted to know what they have because they didn’t present any information. They didn’t say that he was indicted or charged or anything of that sort. So we want to see what evidence they have so we as an organization can assess that evidence and think of a way forward. Whether they want to give it or not, we have an obligation to ask for it because you are making a very serious designation and, purportedly, you have information that a particular person acted a way when they were Minister of Immigration for approximately three months. So we want to see what you have.  We want to see what they have that not even the Belize Police [Department] seems to have.  You have a P.U.P. government that’s been in power for two years, they haven’t revealed anything that they’ve seen that was illegal in the department during that time.  So if our police don’t have information that they’ve seen that they can charge with nor the D.P.P., if the current government doesn’t seem to reveal information that they have.  I mean they held a commission of inquiry over a vehicle and two chairs, so you would think that when they went through the Immigration Department that they would have found something that they wanted to find some sort of inquiry on or some sort of information that or some sort of information that they would want to bring criminal charges on, like they did with Minister Montero.”