BELIZE CITY, Mon. Aug. 9, 2021– Last Friday, more of the UDP’s internal strife became public when former UDP senator and erstwhile manager of the UDP’s Wave Radio, Juliet Thimbriel took to social media, to protest her removal from the chairperson post in a key UDP committee. In that social media rant, she went as far as to share an alleged text message exchange between her and the UDP party leader, Patrick Faber.

At the onset of the exchange, Thimbriel was informed by Faber that she would no longer be serving as the chairperson of the Convention Standing Committee of the UDP, and Faber allegedly explained in that text message the reason for his decision to remove her from that post: “It regrettably seems I’m not able to get your objective support so I suggested we do things differently,” he purportedly stated in the text.

In her caption to the post on her Facebook page, Thimbriel remarked, “After working for more than 26 years in the United Democratic Party, more than half my life, because I dare to express myself about how matters are proceeding this is what I got from Honorable Patrick Faber!”

She then suggested in the post that her ousting was apparently a punitive measure against her because of her “expressing herself” in one way or the other against Faber’s leadership.
The purported text exchange that Thimbriel posted included her response to Faber’s message in which he announced her removal, and that follow-up text from Thimbriel to Faber contained a more personal attack directly against his leadership: “You want to be surrounded by people who kiss your *** all day and don’t tell you the truth! That’s why you are in the situation you are in right now where you have the title and don’t have the respect!” stated Thimbriel in the text.

Faber has not made a public statement regarding this most recent rift within his struggling party.

The internal conflicts are occurring as Faber tries to salvage support from within the party after retaining his position as leader of the UDP despite an unsuccessful recall petition to unseat him. While the chairman of the party, Michael Peyrefitte, told the media that they have agreed to keep internal party differences from the public domain, this recent quarrel between Faber and his one-time supporter has seemingly derailed that effort.

Reports are that only Peyrefitte has the power within the party’s constitution to remove Thimbriel from the post of chairman of the UDP Convention Standing Committee.

Thimbriel has, however, reportedly been removed from the UDP Central Executive WhatsApp chat group, and it seems that another party powerhouse, Peyrefitte himself, has left the group in objection to her removal.

Recent reports were that John Saldivar had intentions of contesting the Belmopan constituency in a convention, and deposed senator Khalid Belisle has opted to run against him.