U.D.P. Calls for Immediate Resignation of Cabinet Minister

Andre Perez

Tonight, the Briceño administration is once again under fire after a Cabinet minister is exposed in a sex scandal.  On Thursday, we broke the story of a string of raunchy text messages between the Minister of the Blue Economy and Civil Aviation and a legal professional.  While the relationship was described as consensual, the woman has brought forward certain allegations against the government official, including a claim that he threatened her physical wellbeing.  That transgression has resulted in the United Democratic Party calling for the immediate resignation of that minister.  It’s the latest in a series of scandals that have rocked the People’s United Party government.  Earlier today, the Chairman of the United Democratic Party spoke with the media, condemning the act and calling on the Prime Minister to take decisive action in the matter.

Mike Peyrefitte

Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, United Democratic Party

“The UDP is not interested in any PUP minister’s sex life you know, that’s their business.  We are interest in the cost of living, inflation, crime, healthcare, the economy, the one billion dollar debt that they have accrued since November 2020, that’s what we’re interested in.  What we’re interested in is, the prime minister was informed by a legal professional that they were in fear of their safety, that they were threatened, purportedly, and he only called the minister two weeks after that to verify.  The prime minister was informed of certain behavior by this individual and, from what I’ve been told, certain unwanted photographs and messages that were sent to people.  We believe that if someone feels threatened, there needs to be a serious investigation and it’s a hell of a mess.  There’s the talk of blackmail, there’s the talk of being a sexual predator, there’s talk about threat of life.  I mean, it is a hell of a mess and we must, as members of the National Assembly, carry ourselves in a certain way in our professional or private lives.  The Leader of the Opposition wrote a letter, wrote a letter, and that had the Privileges Committee scrambling to try and have him drawn, quartered and hung at the bridge foot.  I mean, and something happens like this and we don’t hear anything, we don’t hear that cry, we don’t hear that urgency.  So we, as the responsible opposition, we have to keep the fire burning on issues like this.  Here you have someone saying that they have to check with the prime minister if it’s okay for them to go back to Belize because they don’t feel safe.”