7 News Belize

The Opposition On Important Issues
posted (October 30, 2012)
In the last 2 weeks, the Belize Guatemala territorial dispute has been on the minds of many Belizeans, and the newly formed Belize Coalition for Justice has advocated for an emphatic "no" to taking the matter to the ICJ.

Well, today, the PUP announced that it will withhold its public opinion for on the ICJ issue. Instead, the party will conduct its own public education on the matter, and they will let citizens make up their own minds on whether or not they want the dispute settled at the ICJ.

Here's how the party leader outlined their plan for the next coming months:

Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"I wish to state of our party very clearly. The People's United Party will participate in the public education campaign starting in January 2013. Even before that the People's United Party will carry out its own internal education campaign among party members and supporters. At the end of the public education campaign and our own campaign the party's national executive and parliamentary caucus will meet to determine whether or not the party will endorse a yes or no vote or simply allow our members and supporters to vote their conscience."

"We think it is important for us to allow the education process to take place without us first imposing our view on the Belizean people."

The PUP also reiterated that there should be a voter re-registration exercise conducted so that when the referendum is undertaken, the results reflect the truest result of public opinion. Their advice is that the cost of the re-registration should be tabbed under the expenses for the ICJ public consultation exercise.

So, Both the Government of Belize and the Opposition Party have announced their plans on how they will deal with public consultation on the ICJ referendum.

But on the issue of the man at the forefront of Belize's foreign policies, the PUP says that according to their sampling of public opinion, Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington has lost credibility with the Belizean people on the Belize/Guatemala issue.

Here's how Party Leader Fonseca explained it:

Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"I think it's clear and I've talked to people all across the country about this issue. Certainly the people in Cayo spoke with their feet - they walked out on him. They have lost confidence in him and I think wherever you go people have lost confidence in Mr. Elrington's ability as Attorney General to advance any meaningful reforms to our laws that will deal with the crime situation. In terms of the foreign ministry - again he has made some very serious blunders there as it relates to this whole Guatemalan issue as well and he will have a very difficult time going forward - advancing the case of the government on this Belize ICJ issue. He does not have credibility on this issue. So it's going to be a very difficult challenge. We as I said are going to do our part as a part of the public education campaign but we are also going to spend a lot of our time and effort making sure that our people understand this issue."

"We are not relying on Mr. Elrington to educate our people, we will be doing that for ourselves, but it is a real issue that the foreign minister of this country has lost a lot of credibility on the Belie Guatemala issue."

The PUP says that Elrington has also lost credibility as the Attorney General due to his botched effort at the Cayo public consultation when he, quote, "insulted the community" End Quote.

Speaking on other issues, the PUP also discussed the Superbond 2.0. 5 weeks ago, we spoke with Prime Minister Dean Barrow when he came back from Washington DC after meeting with the executives of the IDB and the IMF.

Our reports were that the PM went to lend his influence to try to swing support for a partial IDB guarantee of the debt re-structuring. PM Barrow's remarks were very measured, and since then, there's been no information on the debt-restructuring efforts. The PUP is taking the silence as an indication that the effort has now stalled, and they are calling on the GOB to speak to the public on their progress.

Here's what the PUP had to say about this today:

Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"The restructuring of the 2029 bond appears to be stalled and as increasingly become a secret state operation with little or no information available to the Belizean people. To date the finance committee of the House of Representatives has not been brief as the Prime Minister promise would be done. To date that has not happened. We are very concerned - this restructuring has very serious implications for the future growth and development of Belize. We are not hearing anything from our government. I know the Prime Minister went to meetings in Washington - he came back, gave some very brief comments on what took place. We understand, it is our information and we have to be getting this information from outside of Belize - It's really disgraceful. We should be getting this information from our own government instead we have to relying on people outside of Belize and it was clear that the government's proposals were rebuffed - there attempts to get these various organizations to support some of the activities that they want to engage in were not supported."

And since last week, the nightly newscast has been dominated by the murders; 12 have been reported this month - and the unofficial count for the year is 117.

The PUP also spoke on the situation, in which their unofficial statistics put 2012 as being on track to becoming the deadliest year in Belize's history.

Here's how the Party Council's Chairman put it in perspective:

Henry Usher, Chairman - PUP
"Crime and violence are such at an alarming level that it is near impossible to find a Belizean family that has not been personal impacted by crime. The murder count is staggering; our unofficial figures are that there have been 123 murders up to October 28. That's two days ago, perhaps more since then."

"In 2010 there were 132 murders. In 2011 125, therefore ladies and gentlemen we are easily on pace to surpass the most deadly year on record in Belize and we may even reach 150 murders for this year. In 2010 at the end of October there were 106 murders recorded. Again I repeat at the end of October 2012 - we are already at 123. Think about it this way; in a primary school upper division, standards 4,5 and 6, let's say each standard has 4 classes of 30 students each; that's 120 students per standard. By Belize's murder rate we would have wipe out the entire upper division of a primary school - frightening and disturbing statistics for what we call our peaceful haven of democracy."

"In the last week alone two businessmen have been executed in broad daylight. There were murders in Hopkins, Guinea Grass and homicides in the mean streets of what some Belizeans are now calling murder city not Belize City."

"There was a shootout in front of a primary school, home invasions, robberies, rapes, choppings, I could go on and on, yet we hear nothing from our minister of national security. All we is a merry go round of police press officer getting up and saying the same thing over and over; police are investigating."

The official statistic for 2010 was 129 total murders; According to the PUP's statistic, the count is right now at 123 - numbers from the independent media put it at 117.

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