Disgruntled members of the Opposition People’s United Party (PUP) in the Toledo District made history today when they made a long journey to demonstrate in the media capital of the country, Belize City, against the rejection of two candidates for their divisions’ conventions, Leonard Chavarria, Jr., for the Toledo East division, and Jose Braddick, for the Toledo West division.
Chavarria and Braddick were accompanied by over 150 supporters, who Chavarria said were all card-carrying, faithful members of the PUP.
The demonstration started at the Battlefield Park in downtown Belize City, and went through Regent Street, taking a right over the Belize City Swing Bridge, and another right down North Front Street, then turning left on Gabourel Lane, where they took a left at the corner of Queen Street and Gabourel Lane, against the flow of traffic, stopping in front of the PUP headquarters on Queen Street for about a minute to express their displeasure. Then the demonstrators continued back over the Belize City Swing Bridge, stopping at the Battlefield Park.
Chavarria, along with the other demonstrators, called for the leader of the PUP, Johnny Briceño, to step down, saying that as long as Briceño is leader, he and his supporters will no longer be a part of the PUP.
Chavarria told the media today during an interview at Battlefield Park, “Yes, I am a PUP, but from today onward, we will roll up our PUP flags, our PUP banners and we will not support the PUP as long as John Briceño is the party leader.”
Chavarria and Braddick say that as far as they are concerned, Briceño is the man behind their rejected applications for this year’s convention in their respected constituencies.
“The reason why we are here today,” Chavarria told the media,” … is because the People’s United Party, the party that I have been working with since 1996, outrightly refused our candidacy for the standard bearer for PUP, myself for Toledo East and my colleague Jose Braddick for Toledo West.”
Chavarria had applied to run against Mike Espat on March 6, 2011, in the PUP convention for Toledo East, and Braddick had applied for candidacy in Toledo West against Oscar Requeña.
Chavarria told us that instead of being allowed to run, he was being offered a monetary compensation to drop out of the convention and endorse Mike Espat, but when he rejected that proposition, his police record was used as an excuse to deny him the opportunity to stand in the convention.
Amandala also contacted Briceño, who denied all of Chavarria’s “rantings” against him today. Briceño also told us that he has never offered Chavarria money, nor was he involved in the decision on his application for the convention, calling all allegations against himself a lie.
Briceño additionally told us during our phone conversation today that he knows that Chavarria had gone through due process for candidacy in the convention with the ODS, but maintains that he, Briceño, had nothing to do with Chavarria’s failure to be allowed to contest his division’s convention.
Chavarria told the media today: “What is happening here is that we attended a special interview by the ODS [the Order of Distinguished Service, which is made up of past members acting as mediators] [which] is seemingly manipulated by the party leader, Johnny Briceño, and what has happened is that they have disqualified my candidacy based on the fact that they are claiming that I have a criminal record and they are basing this on a common assault charge which I committed in the year 1996, when I was just 15 years old, and because of that, they are claiming that I cannot run for the PUP.
“There is one thing I have to say, [that] before I attended the ODS interview, I was offered on several occasions, financial compensation for the year and a half that I have been campaigning; I was offered financial compensation to step aside and allow Mike Espat to run with the condition that I support Mike Espat. I cannot do that. Now I am not here because I want a convention; I am here because I believe it is a great injustice for the people of Toledo.”
With less than a month away from the Toledo East convention, Chavarria maintains that there is a conspiracy for Espat’s endorsement, and that no one is to challenge him.
An angry Chavarria said that he has now called it quits with the PUP, until Briceño is removed as Party Leader, and that he is contemplating offering himself as an independent candidate.
Chavarria explained to the media what he considers to be Briceño’s motives for supposedly blocking his candidacy: “It goes back to the Patchakan conspiracy. Mike Espat was instrumental in getting the party leader [John Briceño] installed, so now, John Briceño has a certain level of allegiance to Mike Espat, he owes Mike Espat; John Briceño’s leadership is to a large extent dependent on Mike Espat, and Mike Espat in Toledo East is not wanted.
“The voters rejected this man predominantly, almost eight hundred votes [in the year 2008]; how could you do that? I have to withdraw from the PUP at this point. I am sorry; it is my party. I am willing to come back if the leadership changes; the PUP has a leadership crisis right now and the only way out for the PUP in the general elections is to get rid of John Briceño.”
Chavarria indicated that his “Plan B” was to go back to the voters in Toledo East and Toledo West and to conduct a survey to see whether the residents of the area would be receptive to an independent candidate; if so, he will offer himself as an independent candidate.
Former PUP mayor of Punta Gorda, Anthony Westby, also accompanied Chavarria today, and he told us that no matter what, he will not endorse Espat, because he has also been unjustly rejected from candidacy for his division.
Westby told the media today: “I am sorry, I cannot do that, you know why, because I myself was a victim of this very same thing after serving two consecutive terms for the PUP, and my third term, when I went going into the convention, they accepted me, then all of a sudden, they called me one day to Belmopan and said, ‘yo cahn run inna this one, yo haffto step out.’
Westby lamented that this is “not the first time the PUP has done this” in Toledo. “There were seven people out of that ODS that wanted this man to run, and only three didn’t want him to run. Johnny Briceño overruled these seven people and said this man can’t run, [and that] Espat has to run.” he charged.
Westby added, “The rate they are going, the PUP, they will lose the elections, because you can’t be doing this to people and think that [the] people will accept it; they did this to me years ago, and it still hurts me.”