BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Dec. 9, 2020– In our mid-week edition, we reported on the appointment of Amilin Mendez to the post of CEO in the Ministry of Economic Development. As previously reported, Mendez’s appointment prompted some criticism from PUP officials who dubbed her as a UDP supporter infiltrating the party.

Some are still calling for her removal and for the appointment of a PUP loyalist to that top-ranking executive position.

 During the UDP’s press conference held on Wednesday, the Leader of the Opposition and Mendez’s former boss, Patrick Faber, declared that the new CEO of Economic Development is, in fact, a UDP. He even said that she contacted him for the party’s blessing before accepting the position.

 “Amilin Mendez is a UDP. I think it shows tremendous goodwill on the part of the Prime Minister to appoint a UDP CEO. I don’t think that sat very well with his government. I am told that there are people who are kicking over it in the party. But yes, she is a member of the UDP now. Yes, she has worked in this party and yes, she called me and said, they are offering this position to her; ‘as the Party Leader, what do you think?’ I said that nobody in this party is going to hamper you,” Faber said.

And while she may be viewed as a conduit between the new PUP government and the high-ups in the UDP, such appointments across party lines are not novel in our system, as Faber pointed out. “We appointed good PUP Stuart Leslie, who is now Chief of Staff for the Prime Minister, to work in the government, and gave him a government vehicle and a high salary and all of that, you remember? So why you behaving like this is something strange?” he said.

Stuart Leslie, the new Chief of Staff and Cabinet Secretary in the Briceño administration, served as an Ambassador and a member of the Referendum Unit inside the UDP’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2018, Leslie left that ministry in order to dedicate more time to his party, as explained by then Minister Wilfred Elrington.