And while DPM Hyde has lost a friend, the UDP's Shyne Barrow seems to be picking up new ones every day.
He is back at home after his second successful U.S. publicity tour. We've been bringing you the snippets all week and it's had sprinklings of appearances by the likes of DJ Khaled and Nicki Minaj.
But Shyne wasn't just schmoozing celebrities, he also got down to business, appearing with Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa as well as the current and former Mayors of Belize City to speak at the Belize Investment and Economic Development Forum.
And, this morning in his first interview since returning, he told our Sunup hosts that Belize's political parties will work together to facilitate and preserve the foreign investment that they're working so hard to attract.
Hon. Shyne Barrow, Member of Parliament
"What you saw at the economic investment forum is a part of the vision of the UDP, of elected members of the house such as myself, that we will hold this administration accountable but at the same time in the interest of national development and managing the crisis that we are in the midst of, we are prepared to work with the government. So that was a good opportunity to demonstrate that and the diaspora, the investors were very pleased. I find that the diaspora is A-political, they don't care about blue or red, they care about Belize, and sometimes when you have this division it makes people uncomfortable, whereas to have all of us there not criticizing each other but examining and analyzing the critical issues without casting aspersions, without trying to throw each other under the bus but saying these are our problems and this is what we need to do. It was refreshing and I'm telling you people were so happy, that were in attendance and that was attending, and the investors, one of the points I made to the investors is you don't want investor instability, you don't want economic instability whereas when the government changes you have to worry about your investment because you know everything is politicized, so if you got your investment was done under the PUP well then when the UDP comes in we're going to do everything to obstruct you and vice versa, so to see that we have working relationships is very important to investors. They want to know that continuity exists in Belize, that is one of the first questions they ask: "Well what happens, because the government is one way to know, Well what happens when the government changes." I think there are fundamental implementations that can take place which means that Belize will be friendly to investors."
But whatever the front they put up abroad, Shyne had barely touched down at home when political infighting reared its ugly head in his own back yard.
It came from political stalwart of Mesopotamia Brian "Yellowman" Audinett who took to Facebook to allege that Shyne was neglecting his constituents, the people he said, quote: "made Shyne get that visa."
And yesterday Yellowman, much like Petillo, went live to name and shame Shyne while he said a line of people waiting for groceries formed outside Barrow's Mesopotamia office.
But Shyne denied those allegations today, sending us pictures of himself handing out said groceries and telling us quote: "Nobody works harder than me for my people."
