And we also asked the police minister about the death threat made on social media towards Channel 7 News Director Jules Vasquez. It was made by a Belmopan resident who profiles on Facebook as an ardent supporter of his area rep Minister Mira, and has been photographed with him on multiple occasions.
Well today Mira said he's taken pictures with lots of people and that the focus shouldn't be on his relationship with the poster but the post itself.
Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"Anything like that is a concern. I mean, I will never come here and condone any instigation of violence in any way, even on social media. But I take pictures with people all the time. It's not an isolated picture that I took. And but I find I mean, on that day, I took thousands of pictures. We had a lighting ceremony, and, I took thousands of pictures. I think that what the media needs to now focus on is on that post that somebody did not on the picture that I was on. I don't know if the picture is the news now, because I can take a picture with you on what you post on social media. That's your business. I have nothing to do with that. I don't control that. In fact, my own personal, social media page, I don't really control that. I have people who do that for me. And while I make sure that what is posted on my social media and page is on conformity to what I believe, I really don't have that, somebody could go post anything. So I really do. I do not condone those kind of any kind of violence. It was asked to be from, from this particular person, but from anyone. I would never condone that. But, alleging that because a picture of myself on him was on social media that he is being somewhat. But I think that's very false. And the narrative is very, very false. I think that the social media in this age, you know, everyone has, that ability to post anything that they want and, that's on them. There's also a responsibility on every individual on what they post. And therefore I don't really post because the responsibility of what I post is on me, not on anybody else who is my friend or who I'm taking pictures with. So every individual and I will say this again, every individual has a responsibility and they are responsible for what they post on social media. And if they post something that is wrong, then that responsibility lies on you and you can be dealt with."
Courtney Menzies:
"They say that he's a strong supporter of yours. Maybe that gave him or made him feel like he has some type of immunity."
Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs
"I don't know if what you say is right. Those that know I'm open know that he did not, he wasn't a supporter of mine. Those that know the individual know that he never even the voted in Belmopan. So he never vote for me, all right? Because he never vote in Belmopan, and he never registered in Belmopan. But, I know that he has just transferred this year to Belmopan. But it's someone that I know from before because he was in the police department, and we did a lot of patrols together. So I know the person. Yes, I do know the person, but what he posts is not my responsibility. That's his responsibility."
