We have not editorialized about the incredible heist of 42 high tech weapons from the Belize Defence Force armory some three or so weeks ago. There was really no need to editorialize. The story spoke for itself. Where there was supposed to be maximum security, there was none. It’s as if we are living in cartel country.
The nature of our parliamentary democracy is such that major issues are almost always viewed through the prism of party politics. The two major parties do not appreciate being likened to each other, but there are certain things which do not change whether the PUP or the UDP is in power. There are matters of a regional nature, such as the narcotics business, which are larger than the local political parties which form governments. The violence in Belize City is closely connected to the narcotics business, so that the local police are really overmatched. Worse than that. At various levels, the local police are sometimes suborned. It’s happening all around us – in Mexico, in Guatemala, in Honduras …
The Minister of Defence, Hon. Carlos Perdomo, was also the Minister of Police, until Senator Doug Singh was specially recruited by the Prime Minister to take over the police. Perdomo has described himself as a “team player.” He was the Permanent Secretary for Belize’s first UDP Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Manuel Esquivel, and has been President of St. John’s College and Principal of the Center for Employment Training (CET), among other things. This is not a manifestly brilliant man, but he is a member of the powerful Perdomo family and he is a Landivar Jesuit loyalist. Carlos Perdomo has “backative.”
The question of whether there was pressure on him to move out of Caribbean Shores is an interesting one. Minister Perdomo has cited personal and spouse health issues as the reasons for his decision, announced last week, not to run again in Caribbean Shores. It was only a few months ago that he had turned back a Caribbean Shores convention challenge of young City Councillor, Roger Espejo.
Three new candidates immediately announced for another UDP Caribbean Shores standard bearer convention – Mike Singh (a brother of Doug’s), Santino Castillo, and Ann-Marie Williams. Just as quickly, Perdomo declared that he personally and his Caribbean Shores committee were giving their unconditional endorsement and support to Mike Singh. When, a day or two afterwards, Mrs. Chandra Nisbet Cansino announced her candidacy, and was publicly endorsed and supported by the Prime Minister’s wife, Kim Simpliss-Barrow, eyebrows were raised. Within a day or two, the putative frontrunner, Mike Singh, announced his withdrawal from the convention competition. ???
Did Perdomo overstep his bounds in pushing for Mike Singh? Did the Prime Minister send a message through his wife? These are matters for speculation. What does appear to be the case, however, is that these four candidates for the UDP’s Caribbean Shores convention give one the impression that they consider a UDP general election victory to be likely. The PUP’s new Caribbean Shores standard bearer, Anthony Mahler, who had ousted the PUP incumbent, Joe Coye, had been optimistic where a contest with the tired Perdomo was concerned. This ball game has changed.
Some more important political news broke last week. The populist candidate, Karen Bodden, defeated the corporate candidate, Sharole Saldivar, in a contest Saturday to decide the Opposition PUP’s candidate for Belize City Mayor in next March’s municipal elections. With the PUP just having installed a corporate Leader, Hon. Francis Fonseca, we will be watching to see how the relationship works.
Again, the corporate PUP newspaper, National Perspective, edited by Omar Silva, suddenly did not appear last Friday after two years or so of publication, while a Glenn Tillett-edited newspaper, The Independent, just as suddenly surfaced.
Belize has definitely entered the campaign portion of our five-year cycle of party politics. While there is speculation that the Prime Minister will call early general elections, perhaps holding them the same day as the municipals, the precedent having been set by the PUP in March of 2003, we don’t know Mr. Barrow to be a gambler. The UDP can govern until February of 2013. We think the Prime Minister will be tempted to fulfill the five. But, things can change quickly in cartel country. Last week was an example of changes.