Opposition leader calls for criminal investigation into conduct of embattled minister

BELMOPAN (CMC):

Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow has described as a “farce” the decision by Prime Minister John Briceño to allow his embattled Minister of Blue Economy and Civil Aviation, Andre Perez, to proceed on leave while an investigation is conducted into the recent allegations against him.

Barrow has questioned why the Belize Police Department has not launched a criminal investigation into the matter, instead of the attorney general and minister of legal affairs, who, according to a government statement “will advise the prime minister on whether there has been any actionable wrongdoing” by the minister.

“You see, the problem with credibility is that, once you lose it, it’s gone, very difficult to build back, and this government is not even attempting to do things to restore their credibility. They have zero. So, when you tell me that a ministerial colleague of Andre Perez is the person tasked with investigating him, that is absolutely absurd, that is a farce, that is an insult to the Belizean people,” Barrow told a news conference.

“What we should be talking about is a criminal investigation. When I was accused, nobody said, ‘Oh well … man-and-wife thing that.” No. I was demonised, I was categorised and I was stigmatised for the rest of my life.

“When you Google my name, those allegations will come up, that I was never charged for, never arrested for, and that was retracted, and that my partner came out and endorsed me to be area representative for Mesopotamia and has supported me ever since,” Barrow said.

Perez, the Rural South Area representative, is embroiled in a sex scandal involving a woman attorney who has made allegations against the minister.

Media reports here said a demand is being made for a criminal investigation to be launched, given the graphic descriptions shared by the attorney in her account of what purportedly took place involving Perez.

The government statement said that the “Cabinet is confident that Minister Perez remains committed to and will continue to serve the interests of his constituents in Belize Rural South” and that “in the meantime, the Cabinet respects Minister Perez’s privacy as he and his family work through this difficult situation”.

But Barrow told reporters while the matter gives him and the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) “absolutely no pleasure to even be discussing this very sordid matter” it nonetheless underscores a fact that the government is “a train wreck, totally out of control, lack of decorum, lack of calibre in the people that got the privilege of administrating our country.