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Briceño was on a roll yesterday, taking questions on a number of controversies facing the Barrow Government right now. When the press asked him about Castro, he didn't skip a beat while reminding how the PUP handled it when Max Samuels faced the same issue:

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"I think it's shameful and disgraceful that we have now a sitting minister who the US government has decided to canceled his visa and we need to ask the question why. Why would the United States government canceled a sitting minister's visa? Not only his tourist visa, but even his diplomatic visa. That by itself the Prime Minister should take action and Minister Castro should be fired. Because obviously something is terribly wrong and we need to ask also that we have been hearing that there are other ministers whose visas have been canceled and I would want to think that the Prime Minister as the leader of this country would know that and he needs to take action."

"When it happened during out time Minister Samuels was not brought back to the cabinet. So now the Prime Minister who was so boastful that he is going to do what is the right thing. Prime Minister do the right thing. You need to fire Minister Castro."

One correction there. Contrary to what former Deputy Prime Minister Briceno said, when Maxwell Samuels's US visa was cancelled in 2002 he was not removed from cabinet; he was moved over to the Ministry of Communications, Transport and Public Utilities - and then offered himself in the 2003 election which he won by an increased margin. Samuels continued to serve as Co-Deputy Party Leader along with Briceno until he stepped aside in 2005.