Belize Times 100725

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

The Belize Times

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LEAVE OUR MONEY ALONE! SUNDAY JULY 25, 2010

Issue No. 4703

This afternoon at least 100 angry protesters marched the streets of Orange Walk Town in protest against Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega. They say that Vega, who is the Area Representative of Orange Walk North, has wrested control of at least $150,000 which was to have been disbursed by Orange Walk East Area Representative Marcel Cardona. As we understand it, each year UDP area representatives are given $150,000 to give to their constituents for educational purposes including scholarships and assistance with

books and fees. Protesters we spoke to claim that a source in the Ministry of Education verified that the Deputy Prime Minister will now control those funds. The bitter hostility between the representatives of Orange Walk East and Orange Walk North is no secret and started visibly as far back as the last UDP National Convention in 2006 when Cardona sided with Carlos Perdomo against Vega in the contest for Deputy Leader of the UDP. With that move the die was cast, and public allegations Cardona made against Vega with respect to his questionable character certainly did not help. It is believed that Cardona’s meteoric fall from grace was in fact

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orchestrated by the very powerful Deputy Prime Minister. Cardona was first removed as a Senator of the UDP and then kicked out of Cabinet to reside on the backbench. Though it cannot be said that he has not tried every which way (up to and including nauseating verbal massages of his leader) to slide his way back into the graces of his Prime Minister and thus the Cabinet, speculation is that DPM Vega has placed a political sanction on the unlucky fellow which will not anytime soon be lifted. It is also known that DPM Vega will back UDP financier and aspiring Orange Walk East Standard Bearer Landy Burns against Cardona whenever the UDP standard bearer conventions are held. A

win for Burns would be the seal on the political death warrant of Cardona. Protesters the Belize Times spoke to claim that the move by Vega to wrest control of funds to be disbursed to constituents for educational needs is just another stage of the plan to weaken Cardona. It is expected that control of the funds would then be gifts to Burns for him to gain political capital and influence over voters who need the assistance. Cardona was not available for comment today.

Operation WHAT?

One of the very first moves of Prime Minister Barrow’s ‘dynamic, energetic and tenacious legal warrior,’ Attorney-General BQ Pitts, has fallen miserably by the wayside. The highly controversial Court #3, which legal experts tell us is illegal, lies dead in the water after Special Police Prosecutor Elizabeth Purcell left the country with little or no warning early this week. Purcell had been plucked from the DPP’s Office and placed under the control of the Attorney-General BQ Pitts and Minister of Police Doug Singh to be the expert prosecutor in the government’s select Court #3. Left without his frontline player in what some say would have been no more than a kangaroo court, Singh stated nonchalantly that he will find a replacement, but the failure of Court #3 is indicative of the failure of another ‘brilliant’ plan, a plan as explosive as a long range missile without a propulsion unit – Operation Restore Belize. While Minister Singh has been in the news often this past week, it has had nothing to do with crime, or perhaps more accurately, the fight against crime. Just this week, bullets claimed four victims and reports today are than another man has been shot in the head and is clinging to life. Minister Singh has said nothing

Elizabeth Purcell at all about that. This week Belizeans for Justice held a press conference in which they cried out for the Police to play a more active role in the war against crime. Minister Singh was nowhere around and had no official response. In fact, while violent crime has continued to claim victims with shocking regularity, Minister Singh’s media appearances have focused on fat-bellied policemen and the need for a gym at the Police Station. The one challenge the Police Minister has thrown out has not been issued to the criminals who

Hon. Doug Singh - Min. of Police make our streets unsafe and our homes prisons. No, Minister Singh is challenging big-bellied Policemen to a running race and a contest of strength and stamina. There has been no perceptible good done since Singh’s appointment, only a very perceptible increase in the anger and frustration within the Police Department. Violent crimes continue unchecked. As for Mr. Barrow, since presenting the beautifully packaged Operation Restore Belize, he has been absolutely silent. Nobody is sure if the operation actually launched, or launched and

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fizzled out or is still in full effect. The only thing anybody is sure of is that things on the streets continue to get worse. The shootings continue without pause. The murders have escalated. The robberies and burglaries and assaults are never-ending. Operation Restore Belize has made nobody’s life better with the exception of the new Minister of Police and the new Attorney-General who have been granted new lofty positions with all the financial remunerations and perks. This government has been unable to do anything right as regards the strengthening of Belize’s justice system. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is in complete shambles. The so-called Special Prosecutor has up and left the scene. There have been accusations of Executive tampering in the Judiciary and the Police Department is in chaos with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel. Until this Government can get its act straight, Belizeans can expect nothing more than an escalation of crime on the street and a proliferation of criminals walking free due to inadequate prosecution. That is all that is written on the all of this UDP administration while Belizeans pay the price.


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