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Former Belize Minister of Agriculture Passes Away

December 22, 2009 By Belizean Leave a Comment

Belmopan, Belize 21 December (Belizean.com) Former Minister of Agriculture in the U.D.P. government of 1993 Russel "Chiste" Garcia died on Saturday December 19th in his hometown Dangriga – three days after his 59th birthday. Mr; Garcia. a former public officer and trained agronomist had been suffering from a kidney ailment according to local press reports monitored in Belize.

Former Belize Chief Information Officer Manolo Romero in a blog post recalled Russel Garcia as a man from humble beginnings but with a charismatic character that helped vault him into the sphere of electoral politics.

"We shared many brews and good times. As is wont to happen on assuming political office his handlers insulated him and I was no more than a waving acquaintance since then."

His funeral will be held at Sacred Heart Church
in Dangriga on Wednesday afternoon.

  

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British Caribbean Bank Responds to Belize Telemedia’s Refusal To Repay Loan

December 6, 2009 By Belizean Leave a Comment

Belmopan, Belize 6 December (Belizean.com) Turk and Caicos based British Caribbean Bank Ltd. has issued a press released printed in local Belize newspapers this weekend clarifying its position on a U.S. $22.5 million made to local telco Belize Telemedia Ltd. in July 2007. The telephone company which was expropriated by the Belize government in August 2009 this year is refusing to pay back the loan.

BTL chairman Nestor Vasquez stated to the media this week that the bank is seeking to close
down BTL on the basis that it neglected to pay back its debt to the bank. Vasquez said that BTL's attorney considers the loan taken out
by the previous board of directors to be unlawful and therefore void.

In it's press release British Caribbean Bank says that "In July 2007, BTL entered into a legally valid and binding agreement with the Bank. Under the terms of the loan agreement. BTL warranted that it was fully and legally authorized to enter into and to perform the terms of the loan agreement with the Bank. BTL's use of the loan proceeds benefited all its shareholders and it is ludicrous and clearly legally wrong for the Chairman of BTL to now announce that a loan which BTL in 2007 was in order, is now somehow illegal."

The bank's press release concludes by stating that "The Board of DIrectors of BTL, taking its cue from the government of Belize, is now following what is becoming a worn-out and immediately recognized strategy of the current Government, that being to proclaim as illegal any and all contracts it cannot pay or does not wish to pay."

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Guest Editorial: Belize P.M. Backpedals After Lecturing Future British P.M. Cameron

December 6, 2009 By Belizean Leave a Comment

belize-prime-minister-dean-barrow.jpgBelmopan, Belize 6 December (Belizean.com) Prime Minister Dean Barrow recently spent the better part of two weeks in Port of Spain Trinidad attending a Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit. 

While the Summit is being billed as an address to Global Warming, PM Barrow's motives seemed on an entirely different tangent.  In what has been described as an "extraordinary intervention",

Mr. Barrow used the occasion to promote his personal war (read "pissing contest") with British Peer Lord Michael Ashcroft and to levy threats against the British Empire.  In an article published in last week's INDEPENDENT newspaper of the United Kingdom, columnist Jane Merrick wrote: "The Prime Minister of Belize warned David Cameron last night that he risks damaging relations between Britain and the Central American country if he gives Lord Ashcroft an influential position in a Conservative government."

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