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The Riff Between The Esquivels & The UDP’s Grows
posted (March 18, 2014)
A letter is being sent from Prime Minister Dean Barrow to former Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel. That is what we are told this evening by Sir Manuel, but he says it is on its way from Belmopan, and he hasn't received it yet.

What will the letter say? Will it be an attempt at reconciliation between Barrow and his former Party Leader? Well, at this point we don't know, but it is a response to Sir Manuel's letter, which he sent last week announcing his resignation as Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister.

But, the vibe we are getting out of Cabinet this evening is that it will be respectful, but it may not be conciliatory. We are told Cabinet discussed the subject today at its regular Tuesday meeting and the concensus sentiment was that nothing special would be done to try and patch things up.

That's because bubbling under the surface, it seems, is a matter of respect between former Prime Minister Esquivel and current ministers. The current minister of tourism Manuel Junior Heredia says he was disrespected when he was summoned to meet with Laura Esquivel Frampton and her father at Sir Manuel's house to discuss her departure.

Sir Manuel told us that Heredia called Laura Esquivel to meet with her, but she didn't want to meet at the BTB because the Palace coup had already taken place. So Sir Manuel suggested that she tell Heredia he can meet at his house - which Sir Manuel says was not a summons to the minister.

But that's how it was interpreted, and this has created a real sense of bad blood between the Cabinet on one side and Sir Manuel on the other.

Also, there's information which says a message was sent from the former Prime Minister to the current one about PM Barrow's apparent lack of support for Laura Esquivel-Frampton's plight.

Put all this in the larger context of Sir Manuel's appointment as the Chairman of the Central Bank not being renewed earlier this year, and now the unceremonious departure of his daughter from the BTB, there appears to be abiding ill will on both sides.

As we noted last night, this is not expected to affect the UDP internally because there are few Esquivel loyalists still in senior positions, but outside the UDP, Esquivel is a statesman, and a man of integrity, and his continued association with the party - in the past - is certainly believed to have had a positive effect on swing voters. Whether that logic still applies in local politics, is yet to be tested.

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