So what did Mayor Moya have to say? Well, she was uncharacteristically reserved. Usually, anyone who comes at the mayor gets it right back on his or her nose but not this time. The Mayor pulled punches, in fact she even sympathized with the Right Honourable Esquivel.
Zenaida Moya, Mayor of Belize City
“You know it’s really unfortunate that he felt he had to do what he did. I understand that he has his daughter and any father would do what they would do to support their daughter whose on the other slate. So I have to understand that and I also have to remember that Mr. Price, George Price did the same thing for Francis Fonseca and it did not work. But I understand that he probably felt he had to do it.”
Jules Vasquez,
Mr. Esquivel is very much in the thick of things and he is your financial advisor and he implies that you weren’t exercising fiscal discipline in the management of the city’s finances.
Zenaida Moya,
“Again Jules I will not run a negative campaign. For the past couple years he along with Mr. Vasquez have been my advisors and I must say in followed what was advised to me. Sometimes that ran me into problems but I did so none the less so that’s all I have to say about that.”
Jules Vasquez,
Do you feel that it would hurt you in any direct way, Mr. Esquivel is the grand old man right now of the UDP?
Zenaida Moya,
“No, no it will not hurt me. Again whenever anything is done it just makes me stronger and my people just support me even more and that’s it. It will just make me stronger.”
And right in the middle of all this is party leader Dean Barrow. He’s the one who asked Esquivel to serve as
Moya’s financial advisor. And Esquivel also works across the hall from him, so many observers feel that when Esquivel moves, he has Barrow’s blessing. But today the Party Leader and Prime Minister told us that no such thing happened. He said, Esquivel is his own man.
Hon. Dean Barrow, UDP Leader
“Mr. Esquivel is of course very much his own man and clearly he has done this in good faith. Everybody knows Manuel Esquivel is a straight shooter, rigorously honest. Clearly whatever he said is the way he feels and that’s I think part of the democratic process, part of the UDP’s internal democratic process, part of the country’s larger democratic process and so to me its not anything to excite any fevered comment. It is just Mr. Esquivel acting very much in character and signalling that he is perfectly free and perfectly willing to support somebody that he...”
Keith Swift,
But he is the guy who you hired to advisor Mayor Moya and he is saying she has fiscally undisciplined.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“Well Keith I’ve told you I haven’t seen the ad, that is what you are telling me. But and I say to you again that what Mr. Esquivel has done is to endorse Anthony Michael and this is his democratic right and to me that is an end to it.”
