At the top of the news, we showed you the PUP's pre-election press conference in which they went swinging hard against the Prime Minister's son, Anwar Barrow, and International Environments Limited, the design/build company owned by the Arguelles family, which has been awarded over 100 million dollars in public work during the Barrow Administration.
That press conference gave us the opportunity to ask John Briceno about his party's candidate, Jorge Emilio Espat. Espat's rivals keep bringing up his Guatemalan nationality, and they continue to assert that because of the constitution, he is disqualified from running as their standard-bearer in the Cayo West Division. We have been provided with a copy of his Guatemalan Nationality Document.
We asked the PUP's head-table about Espat, and here's how their legal advisor responded to that inquiry this morning:
Eamon Courtenay, SC - Legal Advisor, PUP
"I think the answer to that is pretty clear. In order to qualify as a candidate Mr. Millin Espat has to renounce his Guatemalan Nationality prior to offering himself being nominated. He has been advised of that. He has present to us documents which reflect as best he could the renunciation of which he has been advice Guatemalan law for renunciation. We have taken that at face value and take the position that he therefore qualifies. I should point out to you that Mr. Espat is
also a Belizean and whilst he cannot quality as a Guatemalan and a Belizean if he has lawfully renounced himself then he qualifies. At the present time he satisfies the requirement for nomination and for election to the national assembly. He has been working very hard to get elected. You may not want to hear this but we are soon to get the birth certificate for a person who has nominated himself in the Cayo District. You might be surprise who it is, but what we know already is that one Denny Grijalva who bulldozed a Mayan temple is Guatemalan born. So don't look on us; look at Denny."
A week and a half ago, when we asked Jorge Espat about his Guatemalan nationality, he told us quote, "I was born, like so many other Belizeans in Benque in the Cayo District, in the small border town of Melchor. Both my parents are Belizean, but at the time of my birth, the medical care in Melchor was superior to that we could access in Belize. I have lived most of my life in Benque, and all my life in Belize...The attacks do not matter, except to convince me that I made the right decision to serve my people." End quote.
