You might have thought that after that whole Lev Dermen thing in February, UDP Belmopan representative John Saldivar would have retreated into the political shadows.
But, Saldivar has always maintained that he did nothing wrong, and that's the confidence with which he put his name back into the hat to offer himself as UDP leader, for the second time in two months.
And, if, again, you thought that was a stunt, Saldivar is showing everyone who cares to take notice that he's dead serious. The trained economist has posted a five thousand word Belize Economic Recovery Plan on his Facebook page.
And Saldivar whose last two open interviews have been hit and run events in the political moshpit at UDP mass events, today sat in his Belmopan office where he agreed to a ZOOM video conference to discuss his economic plan.
He said that it's built on five pillars of what he calls the new Belize economy - and agriculture is one of the main pillars:
Hon. John Saldivar, Belmopan Area Rep.
"Certainly we need to focus on agriculture as a main pillar of the new economy that we are going to chart. We talk about agriculture a lot in the past and I don't know enough has been done to make it the pillar. We've been very comfortable with what tourism has done for our country and it has been a great run over the last 2 decades or so, but I think Covid has brought into the spotlight the fact that we need to find other ways of sustaining our economy beside tourism which as we now see vulnerable to certain shocks. Spoke about land reform, definitely talk about agricultural reform has to go in tandem with land reform, because to do agriculture to expand agriculture we need land and so that has to go hand in hand."
Reporter
"You're saying it takes money to make money essentially, what plan do we have in terms of being able to locate the existing resources and place them in the areas where they are most needed in order to create this economic rebound?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Belmopan Area Rep.
"We are staring disaster in the face and we've got to think outside the box. We can't just watch this think come and hit us and simply say there is nothing we can do. There has to be something we can do, we've got to find the monies one way or the other."
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