Tonight, attorney Wendy Auxillou is talking out about the attempts she made to have someone in the ruling PUP hear her complaint against Minister Andre Perez.
As we have reported, the two had a relationship which he characterizes as consensual - but she says there were elements of harassment and intimidation.
But, she didn't; make a police complaint. Instead Auxillou, who was an active PUP, reached out to his Cabinet colleagues. She describes her interactions with them:
Wendy Auxillou, Attorney
"Jules, I want to say that I reached out to the PUP hierarchy four times before all of this became public. I first reached out to Ricardo Martin, who is Andre Perez' chairman of the Belize Rural South Committee out in San Pedro. And his response to me was that he would arrange a meeting with me so that he could sit with me to review my body language as I recounted what I had just expressed to him over the phone. Anyway, I'm still waiting for that meeting. It didn't happen."
"I then reached out to Minister Henry Charles Usher, who I understand is a high -ranking member of the PUP executive. I mentioned what I was interested in speaking about, and I'm still waiting for Minister Henry Charles to respond with a date."
"When I began feeling completely unsafe that my physical safety was being compromised, I reached out to the Prime Minister of this country. And well, we all know how he reacted as he said it on public media, on the TV, that he spoke to Andre Perez and Andre said, oh, this is just my personal matter. Anyway, whatever. That was his investigation."
"And I also reported it to Minister Balderamos. And I must say out of everyone, Minister Balderamos was one that seemed more interested in having a conversation with me."
"I believe she was genuinely interested in what I had to say, but she, after taking notes, after speaking to her, and she was taking notes, she did call me back to arrange a meeting with herself and her CEO, at which point I inquired if I could bring an attorney to the meeting. And she vehemently discouraged that, and then I thought going to a meeting with a government official who is also a lawyer alone in the mental state that I was in was not in my best interest."
We note that Auxillou did not make a Police report - which she did not address in her statement to us.
But, she did comment on what she sees as the ruling PUP's handling of a number of cases involving high profile cases of exploitation of women. She says their response has been suboptimal and points to the Prime Minister as the main culprit:
Wendy Auxillou, Attorney
"To the Cabinet Secretary who went on the news to say that Mr. Perez had apologized on national TV and that presumably that should be enough to resolve a sexual assault issue, a thump on the head to you, sir."
"You, your provincial thinking, is what makes it difficult for women to advance in this country. And in this matter, we have yet to hear the Prime Minister publicly condemn the actions of Mr. Perez."
"Jules, shamefully, the biggest enabler of gender-based violence in this country, is the Prime Minister of Belize. The buck stops with him."
For the record, Perez. has maintained that he and his family were the victims of extortion and threats from Auxillou.
