The race to the next general election already is in full throttle, but one putative contender has decided to leave after threats were apparently made on his life.
Oscar Rosado, Jr., former standard bearer for the Opposition People’s United Party (PUP) in the Port Loyola constituency, had intended to stand again in the constituency convention to be held early in 2011, having submitted his name two weeks ago.
But in a letter addressed to party chair Henry Charles Usher, dated Monday, December 20, Rosado informed that he was withdrawing that application and resigning from the PUP effective immediately, citing “death threats I have received telling me to withdraw from the convention if I want to live and if I contest, then I choose to die.”
Rosado, who works with his parents at the family business, Rosado’s Hardware Store on Cemetery Road, was badly beaten by UDP incumbent representative Hon. Anthony “Boots” Martinez in the 2008 election, and was also part of the defeated 2006 City Council slate for the PUP in Belize City which lost to the UDP slate led by Zenaida Moya, now Flowers.
Rosado, who is also a social activist with the organization Belizeans for Justice, claimed in the letter that he has “been threatened and harassed for the past four years from within,” that is, from inside the PUP.
This morning, Rosado spoke with Amandala, and told us that the threats and harassment have been going on, off and on, for the last four years, beginning after an incident in 2007. The most recent threat was via a call to his mobile phone at the start of December, specifically regarding the convention, as described above.
He told us that he did not recognize the voice on the line as being that of anyone he knew, but its chilling message was enough to cause a re-occurrence of anxiety attacks that have plagued him for some time, and that this most recent incident forced him to visit the doctor and get medication and rest.
In 2007, Port Loyola resident Marie Lewis and others had been complaining about a sewer pipe dumping waste into the area and putting their lives in danger.
Rosado recalled calling in to KREM Wake Up Belize Morning Vibes to offer his input, and shortly thereafter he was hauled before his party officials and scolded, and told by them that he should not have interfered, nor spoken to the media, and that he had come very close to losing his position (at this point, about six months remained before general elections were due). He was also cautioned not to speak to the press again without prior approval from party executives.
Since then, Rosado said, he has acquired a reputation within the party as someone “who speaks up” and as a close supporter of former PUP deputy leader and Albert area representative Hon. Mark Espat – so much so, that when Espat was considering a challenge to current party leader John Briceño earlier this year, Rosado was personally visited and told that if he continued to support Espat, he “would be sorry.”
He was also accused, he told us, of boycotting an important meeting which Espat and Lake Independence rep Cordel Hyde also did not attend, when he was in fact sick. At a subsequent meeting, one speaker implored Briceño to “get rid of” of those he said were against him, referring to Rosado, who was in attendance, and the absent Hons. Espat and Hyde.
More recently, according to Rosado, his activism with Belizeans for Justice, which he says is a non-political organization dedicated to solving the crime issue, has been raising eyebrows. The group, whom he calls his “best friends” and credits with helping him learn to speak out, includes a diverse membership, with as much as 75% (mainly mothers) from Port Loyola, from Danalyn Murillo (mother of murdered deacon Teddy Murillo) and Joan Sutherland (mother of the late Allen Sutherland) to group founder Yolanda Schakron and UDP City Councilor Roger Espejo.
Rosado insisted to us that Belizeans for Justice has tried to keep politics out of the organization, and said that while they stood beside Espejo in his failed bid for UDP Caribbean Shores standard bearer two weeks ago, the organization had also committed to giving him, Rosado, similar moral support in Port Loyola – Espejo had been in the division after October’s Hurricane Richard distributing relief supplies.
Rosado also mentioned receiving a text message threat just two days after the funeral of Eyannie Nunez, 8, mistakenly killed in September of this year.
Rosado names those who threatened him, as he described them to Henry Charles Usher in a meeting on Tuesday, as being “some people close to the high elements of the party, who, because they are close to the party officials, but not officials themselves, want to do and undo and manipulate the party…these are hustlers, who brought the party down, and now they want to come back in the party and rise to the top again.”
He told us that all the threats he has received were “politically motivated.”
But he did not, and will not, call actual names. The Opposition, in a formal press release sent yesterday, Tuesday, said that its National Executive was “surprised and disappointed” by the decision, and stated that the National Executive “categorically denies any involvement in alleged threats to Mr. Rosado.” “The PUP is a peaceful organization that does not condone violence of any kind. The doors will always be open for Oscar to re-join the Party…” said the release.…” said the release.
Rosado says he strongly believes that whomever his detractors are, they are not and do not have the backing of the top party leaders. He told us that he had spoken to John Briceño last week, and the Party Leader reportedly expressed his dismay at the allegations.
According to Rosado, the Party Leader had singled him out recently in an executive meeting for being one of the few PUP activists doing work in Belize City, and recently toured his constituency with him.
Rosado said he has also ruled out former party leader Said Musa and another Port Loyola aspirant, city businessman Gilroy Usher, Sr., as being the sources of the threats. Speaking of Usher, Rosado said that they have been personal friends and business acquaintances for some time, and that Usher had come to him and announced his candidacy and promised that no matter the result, they would remain friends.
He also cited support from the likes of former Port Loyola rep Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, former Mesopotamia standard bearer and city councilor Eloisa Trujeque, and current deputy party leader and former Collet standard bearer Carolyn Trench-Sandiford, whom he calls “exceptional women.”
Usher, who visited Amandala today on an unrelated matter, declined to comment.
Party chairman Usher has called on Rosado to give a formal complaint to the Party detailing the various instances of threats. But Rosado told Amandala today that he has decided against that, as it “would involve calling names, which I am not prepared to do.” He has also declined to initiate a police investigation, for similar reasons.
Rosado told us that his family has lived in the heart of Port Loyola since he was five years old, on Gill Street next to the former Rosado’s Bakery, which burnt down several years ago. He says that while he is unable to accede to the calls from his supporters in the division to press on, he will continue to assist in the division where he can, continuing in the footsteps of the late Therese Felix of Mothers Organized for Peace, of which he was a part.
By forcing you out, have these persons gained a victory over you? Amandala asked Rosado today.
“They have a victory in that they have slowed me down,” he replied, “but I have victory over them in that I am still first in the hearts of the people of Port Loyola. I will continue giving, with my personal finances, what I can in the area. I walk with God, and going to church and my work with Belizeans for Justice have helped me gotten more spiritual. I still have friends within the PUP, but I will not go where I am not wanted.”