When George Price did not graduate as a priest from a Jesuit college in the United States, he passed through Punta Gorda in 1949 en route to Guatemala to attend a Catholic seminar. On his return to Belize he got a job at the office of his godfather, Robert Turton, an exporter of mahogany and chicle to the USA. What was the People’s Committee in January 1950 quickly turned, on September 29, into the People’s United Party (PUP). But John Smith, the leader of the PUP, resigned from the PUP because rumors were that Price was receiving Christmas gifts from Guatemala.
Price went on to win the leadership of the PUP. Defeated Leigh Richardson and Phillip Goldson were thrown out of the PUP at the Riverside Hall. Price had garnered support from a British Honduras committee to visit London to seek financing. When in London, Price met with Guatemala’s Minister Garcia Granados, who had a document marking British Honduras as a satellite of Guatemala. The British learned about this and labelled Price a devious man, who wanted Belize to be given “Lock, Stock and Barrel to Guatemala.” When Price arrived at the Belize airport, his PUP followers were there in the thousands, saying, “Contract or no Contract — we want Price!”
In 1960 the British told Price in no uncertain terms that his people wanted independence, but that the Guatemalan claim was stopping it. They laid the cards on the table. Either he could get independence, or Guatemala could make some governor of him. Price decided to stop playing with Guatemala. He went to Guatemala and laid the cards on the table. President Ydigoras Fuentues called him a traitor, while Garcia Granados went on Price’s side. And so, Price gave his famous speech to a high school, “Not One Square Centimeter.” He broke with Guatemala, and the British trained Belize in preparation for general elections and and a ministerial cabinet system.
When I returned in 1961 from Mexico, where I had been studying Civil Aeronautics on a scholarship given through the United Nations, Mexico and Guatemala, I heard from Burleigh Reyes, the Belizean announcer at “Radio Amatique,” that Hons. Silva, Arthurs and Perdomo had gone to Guatemala City on an invitation from Granados’ son to visit President Ydigoras. Accordingly, I learned from Burleigh that the Belizean representatives went through a launch from Punta Gorda, then on to Guatemala City.
Ydigoras told them that Price had obtained a total of three million Quetzals in funding for his PUP politics. So when Robert Turton did not finance the PUP, Price was familiar with all those voters occupying Turton’s houses painted yellow and did them favours. On the return of the three Hons., they were summoned by Price for a members meeting at the PUP headquarters at Queen Street.
The CIB and one British officer questioned the three: What was their mission to see the President of Guatemala? My father, Hon. Sam Vernon (he was there with Hon. Faustina Zuniga in the meeting), said openly that when Price was accused of making trips to receive money from Guatemala, a PUP executive meeting was not called. Sam Vernon finished with, “The boys already said, ‘We did not receive any money.’”
At this, Price told the three Honorables, “they better behave, because the British was watching carefully — and they must not go to Guatemala!” What I learned from the Belize Office (attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala) was that Price received US $60,000 every month – through Melchor-de-Mencos. Once Price was followed by CIB, and he told Hon. L. Sylvester to travel through El Salvador and go for the stipend, which Sylvester did.
When I returned home from Puerto Barrios,I had done 3 years at Puerto Barrios Aviation Tower. I applied for a similar job at the Stanley Airport Tower (the controllers at Belize had gone through the same aeronautics scholarship at Mexico), but I was told “No Vacancy.”
I, therefore, with my father, Hon. Sam Vernon, helped to open the Texaco gas station (the gas station still in PG today) and went into politics. I won four elections (as mayor) and once as area rep. in Toledo West. I wrote an article in the Amandala about the Hurricane Hattie (when I played a part as an air traffic controller when I worked at Puerto Barrios) that devastated Belize City and Dangriga. I was told by one of the pilots afterwards that I did a good job by liaising with the airports at Belize and Guatemala City from Puerto Barrios.
In Rt Hon. George Price’s biography, A Life Revealed, by Godfrey Smith, first published in Jamaica in 2011, Rt. Hon. Price disclosed to Smith on page 6 that he (Price) had kept none of the Guatemalan money for himself. It had all gone to fight the British.