Last week, we reported on the explosive recording that's out there. Well tonight, it's in here, we have it. It's over an hour long and it is loaded. We'll present the juicy bits tonight, but first some background.
In it, former PUP leader John Briceno is heard talking to a disgruntled PUP supporter in Orange Walk East. Briceno went to try and get his support after the divisive Orange walk East convention in January. Briceno's candidate, Josue Carballo, won the convention and David Burgos lost. The man Briceno is talking to is an embittered Burgos supporter and Briceno is trying to bring him around. It is believed that this person secretly made the recording of a face to face conversation.
All this background to say that what you are about hear is the product of a PUP on PUP war - but tonight it is a national nuclear meltdown for the PUP.
But more than a meltdown, it's like a nuclear attack and the one who pushed the "detonate" button is Briceno. To make it very clear, it's not idle talk, and we cannot treat it as such. This is the former leader of the PUP for three and a half years and the former Deputy Prime Minister under Said Musa for nine and a half years.
The Opposition is still recovering from the bruising defeat in last week Wednesday's municipal elections, and as we've shown you, the pendulum of political fortunes is swinging in the wrong direction. The incumbent United Democratic Party is gaining ground on the Opposition, overturning conventional election trends after 8 years in Government.
At last week's press conference following the election results, we asked Opposition Leader if this outcome is a reflection of his leadership influence. That's certainly where Briceno's mind was weeks before the March 4 elections, and he discussed it freely with this person who made the secret recording. He indicted his political boss' efforts so far to convince the voters that the Opposition is a viable option in the polls:
Hon. John Briceno
"In the middle of November, the elections, after all of that, I went to visit Francis and told him, Party Leader, I want to help." All independent, I went by myself. He said, "Yes you could help, blah blah blah." Nothing. He has meetings in Orange Walk, he has meetings in Corozal, here and there, but he never...not one time Francis invites me and say, "You want to join me?" Or, "I'm passing through Orange Walk, let's sit down and chat a little." Never!...What he wanted to do is to make me irrelevant."
"People want me to move out. That's fine, but I don't think I'll move out of the party. There, I have friends in the party that want me to help them. So I've been helping him, and I have been working slightly..."
"Francis has not been working to get the support of the people… So, right now, the party is in disarray.."
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