In March of 2008 when he was elected the PUP’s new party leader,
John Briceno’s slogan was “Tek back wi party.” Well, on Saturday
after a PUP National Party Council Meeting where the Musa and Price’s
Old Guard and Briceno’s New Guard seemed to have made an alliance, the
slogan may as well have been,” Give back di party.” That’s
right, the differences between the two guards seem to have been ironed out on
Saturday – and insiders say, it’s because Briceno’s leadership
is under challenge from Deputy Mark Espat.
Both sides courted the old guard for support, but it seems Briceno
won out, and much of that may have to do with timing. As we’ve been reporting
from the start of Mr. Musa’s trial in December, the former PUP leader
has not had any political cover from his party. His judicial review went to
court today – and Briceno offered him that cover he’s been missing.
Here’s how it played out today.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Old Guard supporters were very visible at the Supreme Court today– and
past leaders Said Musa and George Price arrived in the same vehicle. But those
weren’t the only PUP leaders there – for the first time , present
leader John Briceno showed up at court backed by his Secretary General Servulo
Baeza and later on his brother Jaime showed up.
It is indicative of a truce between the Old and New Guards that was made official
on Saturday at the National Party Council at Independence Hall when Briceno
told supporters to go to the Supreme Court on Monday to support the former Prime
Minister. Price’s presence at that meeting made it clear that Briceno
had the Old Guard’s support –making clear the terms of the quid 
pro quo: give Musa mass party backing, and the old guard will stand by Briceno
against aspiring Deputy Mark Espat.
But today’s showing was hardly worthy of a mass party. In fact when we
saw this very meagre crowd in the park it didn’t even look like a third
party – making it clear that while Briceno got his quid, which was the
Old Guard’s support against Mark Espat – the Old Guard hardly got
their quo, which was political cover from a mass party.
Couple that with the fact that only two parliamentarians and no prominent executive
members were in court – and it’s clear that – for the time
being at least – this re-merging of the old and new guards has sputtered:
And while that’s our interpretation based on political intelligence, Briceno
says he knows of no such thing.
Hon. John Briceno, PUP Leader
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I mean
what we’ve said all along is we have to ensure that the former Prime Minister
gets a fair trial and the events over the past months have been very troubling,
not only for us in the party for all Belizeans across the country because obviously
there has been a lot of interference from the government and in a case even
the Chief Justice has chided the DPP for her actions.”
Jules Vasquez,
But have you remerged, have the Old Guard and the New Guard remerged? I was
there are the CPC on Saturday and it sounded like you all were very close; you
said come out and support the former Prime Minister – touch one, touch
all.
Hon. John Briceno,
“What we have said is that this party has to stand up for everybody
and that there are many cases where this government has been taking advantage
of many poor Belizeans. We have hundreds of cases of problems with lands where
the Minister of Natural Resources have been going after them. We’re preparing
many cases, both in the north in Corozal, in Orange Walk, in Cayo, here in Belize
City, and we are going to stand up for everybody. It is time for this party
to stand up as a party to defend all Belizeans.”
Notably, key members of Briceno’s executive including national
campaign manager Eamon Courtenay and of course, Deputies Hyde and Espat were
not at Saturday’s meeting. The list of executive absences today were so
plentiful, that it would be best to say that only a couple of the over twenty
executive members showed up at court.
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