It was a week that began with a roar and ended with a whimper for PUP Ministers Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde. Both men publicly criticized their Cabinet colleague Ralph Fonseca this week but tonight the hostilities have been settled, it seems decidedly in the favour of Minister Fonseca.
Yesterday evening, the Prime minister called Espat and Hyde to a meeting at Fonseca's house on Meighan Avenue in Belize City for the purpose of arriving at a truce. At the end of it, both sides agreed to what we gather is an uneasy truce. Fonseca could not be reached and Espat had no comment, but other sources tell us there were heavy, accusatory discussions.
Still, the victory falls in Fonseca's favor because the meeting happened at his residence, which since his return to the country on Tuesday had acted as the headquarters for all his loyalists including Winston Smiling and Luke Espat. If the Prime Minister had wished to meet on neutral territory, it seems that
many locations, not least of all his residence less than a half mile away from Fonseca's would have been suitable.
So why did Espat and Hyde agree to meet on hostile territory. Well, as we reported last night, there had been some very heavy lobbying in the party for the Prime Minister to fire them. In the words of one party insider, it was 29 to 2 in favor of the 'Old PUP.' The numbers against them, the Prime Minister, it is argued, was working to save them, not so much as to humiliate them in the house on Meighan. That sentiment was reportedly resurgent in a party caucus today where, again, the Prime Minister stood up for both ministers not to be expelled from the party.
So Espat and Hyde may have chosen the road of reconciliation, even if it passed through the house of the man dubbed 'Chief Crony' for the purpose of peace and those who were calling for their heads have agreed to lay off, at least for now.
Still, one pending matter is Winston Smiling's seat on the Free Zone Board of Directors. Smiling has retained an attorney to seek judicial review and, as we understand it, the Solicitor General has given an opinion indicating that an election can proceed with proxy votes, which favors Smiling's position.
And while the party rallies around Fonseca, the victory in this one would appear to be for the Opposition, who watches from the sidelines as the PUP hemorrhages precious political capital and re-merges united only under the Fonseca banner, a particularly pyrrhic victory when the report of the Senate Special Committee indicts the securitization programs he spearheaded as the cause of so much taxpayer woe.
