Last week we told you about Martin Cal – the PUP candidate for City Council elections in Belmopan who had to step down after his name emerged in the Auditor General's preliminary report on irregularities at the Immigration Department. Cal attested to knowing a Turk and a Vietnamese who had never set foot in Belize, and obtained their nationality certificates and passports by fraudulent means. So, he had to go….
But, his brother Moises became part of the collateral damage. A two sentence release was sent out from the PUP Western Caucus today. IT says, quote, "The Executive has accepted the resignation of Mr. Moises Cal from the post of Chairman of the Western Caucus." Today we asked the party leader about the case of the Cal's:
Jules Vasquez
"How concerned are you that the taint of immigration misdeeds extends even into your party."
Hon. Francis Fonseca - Leader of the Opposition
"Well, I think that is the sense that the Belizean people have about immigrations, that both political parties are tainted, and they history gives some truth to that. I think in the Cal situation we acted quickly and decisively. We had absolutely no knowledge of his involvement until we were able to see the leaked preliminary report from the Auditor General. As soon as I was able to see that myself, I acted immediately, and indicated to the Belmopan executive and the Western Caucus, that in my view, Mr. Cal would not be able to stand as a candidate for the People's United Party."
Jules Vasquez
"I still don't understand why Moises Cal is stepping down because of something Martin Cal did."
Hon. Francis Fonseca
"I think that his actions in terms of resigning are really out of an abundance of caution, and so yes, you can say that he's over reacting in a sense to what has happened to his brother. But the reality is that we want to move forward with an agenda of reform and change. That is the message we've been traveling across the country with and taking to the Belizean people, and we don't want anything at all to get in the way of that message, to cloud that message. And I think the resignation by Mr. Cal was the right thing, and it's out of an abundance of caution to make sure there is absolutely no perception of cover-up or anything else that can negatively impact that message of change and reform."
Jules Vasquez
"But if the PUP were so abundantly cautious, arguably, they wouldn't have let Mr. Moises Cal re-engage at a senior level after you know very well in 2007, he was caught in Panama with a million dollars in suitcase, and was accused of paying a bribe. Indeed, he was never charged, but the PUP itself had to revoke his diplomatic passport."
Hon. Francis Fonseca
"I think in the Western Caucus, that is an issue that I discussed with them. In the Western Caucus, they felt that they could make use of his skills, and one can look back and say that was a mistake."
Jules Vasquez
"But somebody, again, has to take accountability for that mistake, respectfully. We all know mistakes were made in the past and you have acknowledged these many times, but never have you said, 'I am the leader. It's my fault, I should have stopped it.' You always say that mistakes were made with no subject for the verb."
Hon. Francis Fonseca
"No, no, we acted. We've dealt with the matter. I don't think that we need to do anything else. We made it clear; this is the Western Caucus. We're in Opposition, rebuilding our party, and we try to engage as many people as possible in that process of rebuilding. That is the reality. Mr. Cal, I certainly never saw any specific reports about his engagement in anything."
And while there seems to be a collective amnesia within the PUP about Moises Cal's alleged misdeeds in 2007, we note that at the time official action was taken: his diplomatic passport was revoked an in a press release, the then PUP Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it had been officially informed that Cal is the subject of investigations in Panama. He was also removed by the party as standard bearer for Belmopan.
Rafael Guerra Jr. has been approved as the Interim Chairman of the Western Caucus Executive.
