7 News Belize

Man Detained For Setting DPM Vehicle On Fire, Faber says Family Shaken
posted (October 13, 2016)

Police have detained a Belize City man for setting the Deputy Prime Minister’s vehicle on fire. As we reported, the vehicle was parked at Patrick Faber’s home in Lord’s Bank on Tuesday at midnight when a man jumped the fence and set the vehicle on fire on plain view of security cameras.  7News has learned from police that the man has confessed his involvement and has alleged that someone set him up to do it.  While police investigate that angle, he is expected to be charged tomorrow.  Today, Faber spoke for the first time since the fire. We met him at another event today, and he was noticeably still shaken after the vehicle fire. He told us his only concern is for his kids who were traumatized. Faber also threw out a few ideas as to why he was targeted, the main motive being politics.

Hon. Patrick Faber - Deputy Prime Minister
"It is a very difficult position to be in. My two young boys as you know were at home, this happened in the middle of the night; we were all sleeping so it was a very frightening experience. They actually couldn't get back to sleep most of the rest of the night so they had to stay home from school yesterday and I tried my best to talk them through the whole thing. They are very smart boys so they know the kind of responsibility that I have as the deputy prime minister and as a politician and I believe they can understand some of what is happening but I still don't take that for granted, so I tried my best to be there for them. I know that at their school today the special was offered to give them support as they’re entered school this morning."

"I am the kind of person who normally believes that there is nobody out to harm me. In fact I may be very naive still thinking that it's meant to send a message to try to create the kind of panic environment I believe that there are people who of course see some of kind of threat to me or damage to me as a kind of lesson to the wider UDP. I don't think that people will stone an empty mango tree they see that I may have the potential to take especially the UDP forward and the party forward. We might have a chance at making history becoming a four term government and so it's not farfetched for me to think that the opposition may well want to see suffer a great deal more than other people and maybe scare me out of the whole thing, I'd like to look at it that way."

"What is for sure is that I'll tell you that I do not believe and I made a post on Facebook yesterday to say I honestly don't believe that the BNTU had anything to do with this. I honestly our teachers had nothing to do with this and I'm not saying that to protest and to give signals that as some had pointed on Facebook that it may well be them that's why I'm mentioning. I'm saying that genuinely because I really don't believe that kind of animosity ever existed between myself and the BNTU or anyone in the teaching profession for that matter."

Now while Faber and his sons are recovering from this unsettling experience, Faber says it has shaken him, so much so that he will be more vigilant. And his boss, the PM is also looking out for him. Faber told us more about the additional security measures being taken.

Hon. Patrick Faber - Deputy Prime Minister
"The prime minister had approved the 24 hour police security at my home. In fact the night of the incident the contractors had worked up until 7 pm to try finish a small guard hut on my home premises so that construction has now been completed and since the night of the incident there is 24 hour police security there."

"I am no stranger to politics, this is my life's work, I've spent in excess of 25 years active in political life and to a large extent my skin has become thick to a lot of the insults and to a lot of the attacks. Where it is particularly unsettling to me of course is with my children and their safety and so I'd ask people not to - I know people will worry but I can take some of this licking but please leave my family and my children out of anything that they might have against me because they are innocent to it all."

That suspect is expected to be charged tomorrow, and we’ll have an update on that suspect in tomorrow’s

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