AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums About Belize Nation Laws & Taxes John Briceno And The PUP Millionaire's Club

But, really, he was. 7news has obtained a copy of the speech, which was aired live on Vibes Radio - and we've excerpted the 45 seconds or so in which he lashed out at so - called PUP millionaires:

Hon. John Briceno
"First of all I agree with the former party leader where he said that we can't continue to use the issue about money as an excuse but I want to ask where are those millionaires, those people that made millions of dollars over the 10 years when we were in government. Where are those people that benefitted and made millions? I could give you all names, but I won't call out names. They need to write out checks; they need to bring to the PUP! Money so we can run our People's United Party. That money does not belong in foreign bank accounts! Bring it here, so we could fight once again and we could take down Barrow and the UDP!"

We probably don't need to say it, but the speech is extraordinary for two reasons: first it sort of officially confirms corruption; that there were those who privately profited and benefitted from the PUP's last term of office.

Second, it shows Briceno at stark odds with key players in his party, it demonstrates growing impatience with the old guard and growing fatigue with the party's being broke.

Whether this will push to some sort of tipping point or be just another awkward period of disease between factions of the party remains to be seen. We do know that a national executive meeting has been called for this Friday.

Channel 7

Dean B. On Briceno...

But, according to UDP leader Dean Barrow - who has called Briceno his favourite leader of the opposition, the man who would take his job should be weighing his options right about now:

Jules Vasquez
"Do you know that there PUP millionaires with off-shore accounts?"

Prime Minister Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"Well, anecdotally, I mean, I don't have the evidence of the account numbers and that sort of thing, but I don't think that it's a revelation. I think we all knew that. It's nice that it's been confirmed by him, but I don't think that he is giving us any news. And if you ask if I know who they are, who aren't they? In other words, which of them isn't a millionaire? That is how I would respond to that."

Jules Vasquez
"Being a leader yourself, when one calls out - imaginably - known and established members of the party like that, what would that be an indication of, if you where to put yourself in his position as a leader?

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"That I should start contemplating my exit, that I obviously am leading a party in which there are - to put it kindly, and in as minimalist a fashion I can - huge pockets of resistance - active resistance - to my leadership, huge pockets disgust with my leadership. And even if I, as a leader in those circumstances might be able to say to myself, 'Well, but I still have the majority.' It is as happened with Margaret Thatcher, when she was challenged by Heseltine. She won, but she won by such a slim margin that she felt that her leadership had been undermined. You can't go forward leading a party in which, if you have a vote tomorrow, you will get a majority of 2 or 3. At that stage, the proper thing to do is to say, 'You know what, if somebody else can unite this party in the way - obviously - I as leader have not been able to do, I need, for the sake of the party, to take my leave.'"

Channel 7

Bring back the Money Johnny!

On Saturday September 30ththe People's United Party (PUP) held a party council meeting in which their former party leader, Said Musa, viciously attacked the current party leader Johnny Briceno. He lambasted Briceno for his inability to lead the PUP and basically called him a cry baby. Briceno is known in PUP circles to always blame his ineffective leadership to lack of finances. Truth be told, lack of finances is not the reason why he can't bring that party together. It's simply because he does not have an ounce of leadership material in his body.

That aside, Briceno struck back with great vengeance and furious anger at Musa. He shouted out to those present: "First of all I agree with the former party leader where he said that we can't continue to use the issue about money as an excuse but I want to ask where are those millionaires, those people that made millions of dollars over the 10 years when we were in government? Where are those people that benefitted and made millions? I could give you all names, but I won't call out names. They need to write out checks; they need to bring money back to the PUP! Money that belongs to our People's United Party! That money does not belong in foreign bank accounts!" For those present and anyone who listened afterwards it was a damning statement for the PUP; where the leader of the party admitted that for ten years the PUP fleeced the Belizean public to the tune of millions of dollars. He admitted that the PUP created millionaires who took the money out of the country and placed it in foreign bank accounts.

While that admission was bad enough, he challenged those PUP millionaires to bring back the money, not for the benefit of the country but for the benefit of the PUP. Imagine that, they sacked the Belizean economy and instead of Briceno calling for restitution; to be paid back to the Belizean people, he boldly proclaimed that the money belonged to the PUP.

By his declaration, Briceno confirmed that the PUP had enriched a few at the expense of the masses of Belizeans. And the enrichment was to the tune of millions of dollars. For Briceno to now call on those PUP MILLIONAIRES to return the money to that political party is one of the greatest insults he could have issued on the people. There is no remorse there, the PUP which created millionaires is now calling for its pound of flesh; forgetting that the money they pocketed and exported to foreign bank accounts is in reality the people's money.

Johnny Briceno's tantrum at Said Musa exposed that political party to what it truly is, a bunch of thieves and hustlers who live off the backs of the working Belizean taxpayer. He admitted that the party was a corrupt one and in the same breath exposed that the PUP can only function and attract a following if it is able to access large sums of money to pay off those followers. And while the corruption and the need for money to finance a following was exposed, what Briceno neglected to say was that he himself was one of those who created millionaires, in particular through the lands ministry where he was the minister for the better part of the 10 year term of the People's United Party Governemnt. In fact he himself is not a pauper, and his family are no paupers, they have amassed millions of dollars as well.

There is one thing we can agree with briceno, that is that the money has to come back, but it must come back to the Belizean people not to the PUP. They took it now it is time for them to return it.

The Guardian