Saldivar Speaks on Future in Politics Following Special Committee Decision

John Saldivar

Former Area Representative John Saldivar made an appearance this morning on Belmopan based Plus TV’s Rise and Shine. It is an unlikely interview for the embattled politician, because the host of the morning show, Louis Wade, is considered as one of corruption’s harshest critics. And, given the accusations that continue to loom over the former area representative’s head, Saldivar has been the center piece of several conversations on the morning show.  But, as it appears, desperate times call for desperate measures. Saldivar’s political career hangs in the balance following the U.D.P. Special Committee’s decision last week.  Notwithstanding that decision, he has successfully gathered the necessary signatures to trigger an emergency meeting with the National Party Council. That meeting is reportedly scheduled for the seventeenth of December. During that meeting, one hundred and twenty N.P.C. members will vote to decide whether Saldivar stays or goes.  And, while this morning  he did not elaborate on what his strategy will be going into that December seventeenth meeting, he responded to reports of a possible extradition to the U.S. and why he refused to hang his political hat.

John Saldivar, Former Belmopan Area Representative

“There is a recent article about extradition. I would want them to make a request to the Belize Government for my extradition, because you know what that would mean. It would mean they would have to provide the government with the evidence against me and that evidence would have to be tested in the court of law before I am extradited. So, I would get my day in court. I want to bring a finality to that extradition thing one time because that will never happen. They don’t have the evidence and if they had the evidence, I would want them to bring it. People ask you why you don’t come out of politics and leave the UDP to pick somebody new. To do that at this point when I know I have not done anything illegal, there may have been as I said in the past, judgment issues, but who don’t make errors if you want to call to that way and as long as you are contrite as I am, the Belmopan people now, I don’t have any interest in national politics, my interest is continuing to serve the Belmopan people because I don’t see the person on the horizon, not the current and not any on the horizon, not any of the aspiring people who love to do the things I have done for Belmopan and who have the capacity to do the things I have done for Belmopan. I don’t want to wait another ten fifteen years before another John Saldivar comes forward to lift our city.”