So, while all these emphatic pro-Cuba expressions take shape, as we said, Party Leader Shyne Barrow is isolated from his party, just as he was last week when he supported the relocation of Majid Khan to Belize.
Critics within his party say that Barrow takes these positions unilaterally and that he does so at the dictates of the US State Department.
I asked him yesterday evening if he's playing a puppet game - and here's his combative response:
Cherisse Halsall:
"Finally Sir, the perception is..."
Shyne Barrow, Leader Of the Opposition
"I just answered that question, you just want to get..."
Cherisse Halsall:
"I'm going to another thing. Any decision that the US state department makes."
Shyne Barrow, Leader Of the Opposition
"That's the question I was answering."
Cherisse Halsall;
"Because of the ties, because of the ties that you have to them would be supported by you. You supported Majid Khan, you know support their stance on Cuba because of their embargo etc. Is this you being instrumentalized by the state department to act against this event?"
Shyne Barrow, Leader Of the Opposition
"Again, that is the beauty of democracy because I preempted that question by giving you the answer but I know you just wanted to get that on record for the sensationalism that your news director does so well at promoting on the news and I don't know if it's for likes or viewership, again, the party chairman is very vocal in his position when it comes to views that the state department may share, again to reduce my principles and my integrity to any type of instrumentalization is to reduce Belize to diplomatic prostitution, what is it, what do we stand for, we are a democracy, how is it that we would not share the values of other democracies excuse me how is it that we share the values of autocracies, authoritarian regimes and dictatorships? How could you even question my position I was born in a democratic country, we got our independence to be a democratic nation. I grew up in another democratic nation which is our #1 bilateral partner, this attempt to try to demand me for sharing views that the British and all democracies around the world share these views and condemn dictatorships and authoritarian regimes wherever they lie. This is not unique to Shyne Barrow, please."
