In Belize’s modern political history – where most politicians confine themselves to staid, worshipful remarks about their party and its leaders, Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde were a radical departure from the norm.

In 2004 they started on a campaign of sustained public hostility towards what they construed to be dishonorable elements within their own party. The only problem is that often meant going up against the senior ranks of the PUP – leaving the two rebel representatives out in the cold – dumped from cabinet, distanced from the nucleus of power.

At the time it seemed like so much fussing – after all, they were in the PUP – what did they expect, a church choir?

But while you can say that they achieved very little for all that sustained hostility – looking back at the record now – and the public positions taken by these two representatives over an eight-year span – we can at least say that they were consistent! – Constantly pushing for their party to get back to its social justice roots. And every time, their party reflexively pushed back – leading eventually, perhaps inevitably, to both withdrawing their candidacies in the past week.

And so, while we won’t have them to “blaze up” the PUP anymore, we still have our archives – those gems of news nostalgia.

Looking back more deeply tonight, we found that the trouble for these two started in February of 2004 when Cordel Hyde threw the first stone:

Cordel Hyde
“Some fat cats have been laughing all the way to the bank over the last few years, and tonight I want to say I don’t apologize if my eyes shed no tears and my heart don’t beat at all for these folks.”

“We have a 2 billion dollar economy and yet some mothers can’t feed their kids and the youths on Vernon Street can’t find a job that pays more than 20 or 25 dollars a day.”

That was February of 2004, Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde started what would become a social justice crusade in the PUP. That was a glancing blow, but their downward trajectory in terms of inter-party politics first started in August 2004 with the G-7.

To varying extents, all 7 politicians reconciled with the leadership of the Government and party, but Espat and Hyde never fully got back on track.

By December of 2004, Espat was fired from Cabinet again and Hyde resigned in solidarity with him.

Cordel Hyde
“I think that yesterday was a defining moment for us. It was that time when a man had to stand up for what he believes in and not just talk the talk but actually walk the walk, and I felt like I had to 16:12 do that.”

One month later, in January, 2005 with union-led unrest simmering over a tax increasing budget, Espat and Hyde made parliamentary history: they voted against their government’s budget.

And then in June of that same year – those sentiments would be revisited as the debate centered over a tax break for the Beer company.

Cordel Hyde
Tax the beer before you send home public officers, tax the beer before you tax the poor. But for whatever the reasons, the Government has been pussyfooting around the issue.”

“Madam Speaker, in this bill the Government is saying forget about social justice and equity, forget about the poor, we need the money but we can’t tax the rich. Madam Speaker, the government should stop putting the special interest ahead of the national interest. Many others are paying more taxes than they did in 1998, but poor Mr. Barry he can’t afford it. The rest of us are fools, you see. Madam Speaker, I cannot support this beer tax, it just does not go far enough.”

And if that wasn’t enough, at that same house meeting Mark Espat gave his famous puppet and master speech and an only slightly veiled reference to Lord Ashcroft as Mr. Carlisle:

Mark Espat
“When it comes to helping Belizeans, whose interests our government is elected to serve and protect, everything is a matter of high finance, legal complications and beyond their abilities. This is why our country is so rich but our people so poor. The voice that the people of the Albert Constituency entrusted to me on March 5, 2003 cannot be used to defend Carlisle, it must be used to defend Belize against these modern day pirates and profiteers whose only loyalty is to the bottom lines.”

And after all that historic bombast from the backbench – just 5 months later, they were back in the Cabinet, Espat as Minister of National Development, Investment and Culture, and Cordel Hyde as Minister of Defense, Housing, Sports and Youth.

Prime portfolios and they were duly grateful – even contrite:

Hon. Mark Espat
“I think I should acknowledge the invitation by the Prime Minister. I am sure that it was not a decision that was without political courage and I am humbled that he believes I am able to contribute in some way to the governance as it relates to these three particular portfolios.”

Jules Vasquez
“How do you share a Cabinet with people who conspired against the interests of the employees and masses, by your own reasoning?”

Hon. Mark Espat
“I think one would be more of a hypocrite if one were to say these are the problems and given the opportunity to contribute towards their solution, one would say ‘no thank you, I prefer to stay outside and to complain.”

So they got back in – but just 7 months later, the war was on again with the old Guard – when Espat memorably put down PUP elders in a battle over Free Zone pre-eminence:

Mark Espat
“And I will go further, I will say that indeed there is an old PUP, and I would hope sometime soon, a new PUP. What the ‘old PUP’ stands for is what the people rejected resoundingly – 64 to 3 seats, on March the 1st. And when these political dinosaurs, as I believe they are, or as the streets would call them, political skettels, when they recognize that it is because of the misguided policies that they have pursued, when they come to grips with the fact that so many of the hits against this People’s United Party is as a result of the policies that they and their small group, their minority – obnoxious as they may be, rude and arrogant as they may be – when they come to grips with the fact that it is their policy that has brought the PUP to its lowest level in its 55 years history, only then will there be an opportunity for renewal. Only then will the electoral viability of the PUP as a whole be restored.”

“And so no, I am not a member of the ‘old PUP.’ I believe I am ashamed of that old PUP and there are tens of thousands of Belizeans who wish to support the PUP but who do not support Mr. Chief Crony, his cabal of cronies and the havoc that they have wreaked in the Belizean economy and society over the last several years.”

That putdown was hard! – and Espat was almost expelled through the efforts of those skettels – but Cordel Hyde amplified his position:

Cordel Hyde
“Right now we don’t have one PUP. We have two different PUPs. We have an old PUP that wants to hang on to policies of the past that has gotten us in deep deep trouble. In fact it has put us in a situation where we don’t have enough money to provide budgets for our youth interventions and don’t have enough money to provide budgets for housing, education, health, and I think we need to deal with that issue real quickly or else we will just implode. I think that still remains today….”

Read More: 7News

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Hon. Mark Espat

There are only 30 days to go before the double elections in March, but tonight The PUP is recovering from another wounding body blow. Albert Incumbent and three-time PUP representative Mark Espat this morning announced that he will not offer himself as a candidate in the March 7th General Elections.

The announcement came from his Committee which said in a statement that, “While we wished for Mark to continue in public service, we understand and fully support this difficult choice.”

The statement echoes the sentiments in Cordel Hyde’s release on Friday about the PUP’s departure from its social justice roots. It says, quote:

“What Party members like us seek and what Belizeans deserve is a Party where donors matter less and merit matters more; where results match rhetoric; and where policies live up to the Party’s creed of service to the people, social justice and a mixed economy.” The statement adds that “at critical junctures, in Government and in Opposition, Mark stood firm in defending the interests of the 99% from the assaults of the 1%, refusing to be bullied into submission.”

Importantly, it adds that the Albert Committee will stand down with immediate effect. That’s important because that means the replacement candidate takes over without any continuity from either the candidate or his committee.

Espat also sent a farewell letter to the voters of Albert saying, quote, “May a more equitable Belize, free from the manacles of poverty and violence, shape a more enlightened and hopeful future.” So again, the PUP has lost its hold on a sure seat. Espat had been particularly successful in what once was Phillip Godson’s divisions, and conventionally thought to be unchangeably UDP. He racked up record margins of victory in three general elections – and, simply put, made Albert the PUP’s surest seat in the country.

But it is not that now, now that seat is in play. But, as party leader Francis Fonseca told reporters on Friday, the party sort of expected it, and all weekend the Party’s movers and shakers scrambled to come up with a solid replacement.

They believe they did – and that candidate along with the new one for Lake Independence were sworn in this morning and presented to the media this afternoon. 7news was there as Deputy Leader Carolyn Trench Sandiford bid Hyde and Espat farewell:

Carolyn Trench Sandiford, PUP Deputy Leader

“We are saddened of course by the decision from the gentleman from Albert and Lake Independence in their decision not to contest the upcoming general elections. However its their personal choice and as a party we respect that.”

But they are moving on… and so All 31 PUP representatives crowded into Independence Hall this afternoon – including 2 newcomers, Yolanda Schakron and David Craig.

Before a boisterous crowd of party supporters and press, the message was clear:

Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the PUP

Hon. Francis Fonseca

“We respect their decision and as all of us have said today, we have to move on, it is with absolute`pride, it is with absolute enthusiasm that the national executive and the standard bearers of the People’s United Party this morning, embrace and accepted our new candidates into the fold in the persons of Yolanda Schakron for the Lake Independence division and Mr. David Craig for the Albert Division. The PUP Lake Independence Committee has given their full unconditional unwavering support to the candidacy of Yolanda Schakron.”

Read More: 7News

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Hon. Cordel Hyde

Three-time Lake I Area Representative Cordel Hyde has stepped down; he will not offer himself to run in the 2012 General Election. It’s the kind of thing that could have been expected – but still, it arrived as a genuine stunner.

After all, Hyde is considered to be an unbeatable incumbent – in one of the PUP’s only safe seats in the country. But with just over a month to go before the general election, he’s simply walking away. In an emotional statement issued today, Hyde explained that his son “Khalid was diagnosed in New York on Monday night with a cancer called Hodgkin’s lymphoma.” The statement says that, quote, “It is curable, but he will need the full support of his immediate family.” And then he goes on to say, quote, “I have given 18 years of my life to politics. For all of my adult life I gave it all I had. But there comes a time when a man must face up to certain realities. For me, that time is now.”

And what are those realities? He explains that, quote, “the relationship with my party’s leadership over the years has not been the best. Sometimes the internal tension spilled over into the public’s domain with me not attending some party and parliamentary events….” He adds that, quote, “People around the table will know that I agitated mightily inside for the party at its every turn to do what I thought was right for the people and country of Belize. It is no secret: I lost many of those battles. My absences were oftentimes my desperate but sincere attempts at getting the party to see the error of its ways, to return to its social justice roots.”

And those with knowledge of the situation suggest that’s what’s behind his departure. Basically since the G-7 of 2004, Cordel Hyde has been at odds with the leadership of his party. He has been fired from the Cabinet, resigned from Cabinet, relegated to the backbench, and recently dumped from his party’s executive.

The withdrawal of his candidacy now can only be seen as the culmination of that long period of adversity – where he felt the party was moving away from its social justice roots and he was trying to bring it back.

In closing his departure statement Hyde makes a passionate plea to the voters who elected him three times. He says, quote: “I did not win three straight general elections on my own. I came here on the backs of the hardworking men and women of Lake Independence…”

His impassioned closing says, “To my people: You stood with me through thick and thin, when I resigned, when I was fired, when I had nothing. You gave me strength when I had none. You gave me hope when I had little. But most of all, you gave me your hearts.

I hope that someday, long after the euphoria of elections have passed, and our names are forgotten, you will look back and say, we did it our way – the Lake I way. We did not yield; we never gave in. May it be said that we never lost our way, that in the days when hope unborn had died we stood strong; together we made the ultimate sacrifices.” And he ends on a biblical note, and we quote:

“Scripture says there is a time for everything under the sun. I believe my time has come. For me, this campaign has come to an end.” It’s an elegant ending, but in reality it’s not that tidy. The new leader of the PUP Francis Fonseca removed Hyde as a senior Deputy just three months ago – and now that he’s stepping down, the PUP loses a sure seat, one of its six representatives and one of its most promising, engaging candidates and personalities. They also lose any possibility of mending fences with the KREMANDALA Media group.

And so what does party leader Francis Fonseca have to say about all of it? We caught up with him this afternoon and he told us that Hyde called him this morning and discussed his decision based on his child’s illness. But Fonseca said he is aware that Hyde also felt the party had lost its social justice moorings:..

Francis Fonseca – Leader of the Opposition – PUP

Hon. Francis Fonseca

“My position has always been ‘let’s work on it together.’ You have to be around the table. You have to be engaged. You have to be a part of the solution. It won’t happen on its own, and so I think for me I understand what he is saying. I understand perhaps his frustration, but these things won’t be solved on their own. I became the leader in October of last year, and I reached out to Cordel and Mark. I said to them ‘listen, I understand your concerns about the direction of the party, come and join me. Help me to fix it.’ if you believe we are going in the wrong direction, sit with me around the table and help me to chart a new course and to find our way, if you think we’ve lost our way, come work with us and help us to find our way.”

“But that never happened, and I still cannot provide a reasonable explanation for why it hasn’t happened.”

Jules Vasquez
“Do you in any way blame yourself in so far as it was under your leadership, under your shaping of the executive, that he was dumped as a senior deputy, and – in deed – perhaps if he have not been so removed as a senior deputy he would not have felt disrespected as the Amandala mentioned a few weeks ago.”

“And maybe who knows (its conjectural) but maybe he would not have left at such a critical time.”

Francis Fonseca – Leader of the Opposition – PUP
“No, obviously anything that happens in the party, as the leader, I have to ultimately take responsibility for. So I don’t shy away from taking responsibility for anything that happens – including this.”

“But he wasn’t dumped from the national executive. An invitation was extended to him to be a part of the national executive. He, for reasons yet unexplained, decided that he would not come to the meeting of the national executive. He was invited to be there when we were making decisions to say whether or not he wished to continue serving on the national executive. At no time did I want to remove Cordel Hyde – or Mark Espat for that matter – from the national executive. I was very serious. I got a mandate to lead this party; we have a limited time between now and elections. When I took over the party, it was clear that we were heading into elections. I got a clear mandate; we have to make decisions about the future of the party.”

“What was going on for 7 years could not continue. Under John Briceno’s leadership for 4 years, the fact is that he got very little support from these senior deputy leaders. I did not want to pretend that all was well when all was not well. So I made it very clear to them that I want them to engage, but it has to be real engagement. We have to work together. We have to fight if we were going to have a chance to win the elections.”

“I didn’t want people just sitting around the table for the sake of sitting around the table. I wanted real engagement. I wanted people to be participating, working, and when it was clear to me that that was not the case, I made a decision to form a national executive made up of people who have said to me in very clear terms that they were prepared to work for the party.”

Jules Vasquez
“Now what will happen next in Lake Independence? it was up until now considered a sure seat for the PUP and there aren’t a super abundance of those in any party. Are there immediate short term plans, near term plans for that?”

Read More: 7News

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(Reuters) – A huge asteroid will pass closer to Earth than the moon Tuesday, giving scientists a rare chance for study without having to go through the time and expense of launching a probe, officials said.

Earth’s close encounter with Asteroid 2005 YU 55 will occur at 6:28 p.m. EST (2328 GMT) Tuesday, as the space rock sails about 201,000 miles from the planet.

“It is the first time since 1976 that an object of this size has passed this closely to the Earth. It gives us a great — and rare — chance to study a near-Earth object like this,” astronomer Scott Fisher, a program director with the National Science Foundation, said Thursday during a Web chat with reporters.

The orbit and position of the asteroid, which is about 1,312 feet in diameter, is well known, added senior research scientist Don Yeomans, with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“There is no chance that this object will collide with the Earth or moon,” Yeomans said.

Thousands of amateur and professional astronomers are expected to track YU 55′s approach, which will be visible from the planet’s northern hemisphere. It will be too dim to be seen with the naked eye, however, and it will be moving too fast for viewing by the Hubble Space Telescope.

“The best time to observe it would be in the early evening on November 8 from the East Coast of the United States,” Yeomans said. “It is going to be very faint, even at its closest approach. You will need a decent-sized telescope to be able to actually see the object as it flies by.”

Scientists suspect YU 55 has been visiting Earth for thousands of years, but because gravitational tugs from the planets occasionally tweak its path, they cannot tell for sure how long the asteroid has been in its present orbit.

“These sorts of events have been happening for most of the lifetime of the Earth, about 4.5 billion years,” Fisher said.

Read More: Reuters

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Steve Jobs

Apple fan boys and Steve Jobs aficionados will want to set reminders on their iPhones for Wednesday and Thursday, November 16 and 17.

Those are the days when a recently unearthed interview with Jobs is scheduled to be shown at Landmark Theaters in several cities throughout the United States.

“Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview,” as the approximately 70-minute program is being called, consists of a Q&A conducted with Jobs in 1995, after he’d been ousted from the company he’d co-founded (and before he’d pulled off his now legendary iPod, iPhone, and iPad-powered comeback).

The interview was conducted by writer and producer Robert Cringely for his 1996 PBS miniseries “Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires,” a look at the advent of the PC and the rise of Silicon Valley.

Cringely explained to The Los Angeles Times that only 10 minutes of the original conversation wound up in “Triumph,” and that when he went looking for the rest of the footage for possible use in a sequel, it was nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, however, “Triumph” director Paul Sen had made a VHS dupe and tossed it into his U.K. garage. After Jobs’ death from cancer last month, Sen contacted Cringely, who subsequently got in touch with Landmark.

Remembering his talk with Jobs, which took place at Next headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., Cringely told the Times that the Mac mastermind was “great that day.” Cringely said the talk puts Jobs’ various facets on display, including his humor and a certain crabbiness. During the discussion, Jobs tears into Microsoft and expresses his displeasure at his ouster from Apple. “He was a cranky guy,” Cringely told the Times. “I think we see that.”

The film is scheduled to screen in 19 cities in the U.S.:

• Atlanta
• Baltimore
• Berkeley, Calif.
• Boston
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Denver
• Houston
• Indianapolis
• Los Angeles
• Milwaukee
• Minneapolis
• New York
• Palo Alto, Calif.
• Philadelphia
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington, D.C.

In Palo Alto, where Jobs lived, the film will screen through November 22.

Jobs’ death, of course, grabbed the front page of news outlets around the world and has led to tributes as diverse as walls of Post-It notes at Apple stores to runs on the Apple founder’s favored eyeglass frames.

Here’s some footage from the interview:

Read More: CNET News

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Meet a young Belizean who wants to build robots in the future. He is 19-year-old Ravesh Sukhnandan, a graduate of Edward P. Yorke High School in Belize City.  “From I was a young child, I liked making things and understanding how things worked. Like many of my (male) peers, I grew up watching anime, including the ever-popular Dragon Ball Z. My favorite TV show, however, involved the ‘Gundam’ franchise, which, as you may guess, involved giants fighting robots. This sparked a fascination with how they worked, how they were made, how they operated. This continued my fascination with technology and machines,” stated Ravesh.

Whereas Ravesh said that such advanced technology is very much the realm of developed countries, he sees how it may find application “in the oil, citrus and fishing industries, with regards to replacing some of the more hazardous jobs with automated systems—but this would result in more individuals losing jobs, which is certainly not a good tradeoff.”

Ravesh Sukhnandan is the Belize Open Scholarship winner for 2011. He majored in physics and mathematics at St. John’s College Junior College (SJCJC). In the Caribbean Advanced Placement Exam (CAPE) he earned 5 Grade I passes and 1 Grade II.

His parents inform us that he is currently enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he is majoring in mechanical engineering. Later, he will specialize in robotics engineering. To attain that specialization, though, he would have to access training in different fields, because there is no degree in robotics, said Ravesh, adding that he is open to pursuing multiple degrees to attain the specialization.

Speaking of university life, he said, “There are long hours spent studying, but I refuse to call it ‘hard work,’ because this implies that I do not love what I am doing. I believe that if you love what you are doing, you may not enjoy every moment right away, but eventually you will come to appreciate the journey and the effort put in, because if you shortchange yourself by not giving your passion, your all, you will find yourself meandering down life’s road and not realizing your potential.”

Ravesh is the only child of Nazarene High School principal, Samuel Sukhnandan, and Continental Airlines supervisor, Karen Sukhnandan.

The young man said that one of the factors in him achieving his milestone was the tremendous support he had from both parents.

“This support was not academic in nature, however, as they were not checking to see if I was studying or helping me do my homework…” said Ravesh. “Instead, they were always open to allay any concerns or fears that I may have had, as well as providing the necessary financial support and an atmosphere of positive encouragement.”

The faculty and staff of his former school, SJCJC, said Ravesh, also played a vital role. He specifically mentions his physics teacher, Darlene Peters, and his math teachers, Amir Juarez and Irma Briceño.

Read More: Amandala

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Now that the Ninth Amendment has been passed – forever enshrining public ownership of public utilities – government has to address itself to the issue of compensation. How much will the Ashcroft Alliance receive for its Telemedia shares which were acquired and how much will the Fortis group receive for BEL?

Well, the final figure is in for Telemedia. It comes from a recognized firm of international consultants – and their figure is almost exactly a tenth of what the Alliance’s agents had said it would be. Those local agents have been warning of a compensation package of six hundred million Belize dollars.

At Friday’s House Sitting, The Prime Minister said it is a far, far cry from that:..

Hon. Dean Barrow – Prime Minister of Belize

Hon. Dean O. Barrow

“The final valuation report is just in and it’s been sent to the previous majority owners of Telemedia. We contracted a firm from abroad – absolutely top rate, first class, professional valuers to do the valuation. The name of the firm is NERA, and I will tell you how good they are: when we acquired from Fortis who you think Fortis went to do the valuation on their behalf, NERA! NERA had to  tell them sorry, government has already hired us. So we hired NERA for both the Telemedia and the BEL valuation. That $300 million that Ashcroft is talking about. Let me tell you what NERA’s valuation is. NERA, professional as they are, said they are two scenarios: Remember that 25 million US dollars that BTL borrowed from Ashcroft’s Belize Bank that, ah, when they went to try and re-finance under us, a bank said, our lawyers, First Caribbean have told us that that loan is illegal. Well, in the event that the court finds that the loan is legal, it affects the valuation, so NERA has given two valuations: one if the loan is illegal; one if the loan is not illegal. Well, let me tell you what the lower valuation is if you have to take into account paying back that loan: 71.3 million Belize dollars! That is what NERA said BTL is worth. And if you don’t include that loan then it goes up to $116.4 million dollars, Belize dollars! The higher one, I think it works out to $1.46 a share. And if you want to know how we could have sold it for $5.00 a share when NERA said when we acquired it, it was only worth $1.46 a share, because we sold it after we took it over and cleaned up the mess and turned it once again into a properly run, profitable company that is not sending all the money to management companies in London, also owned by Chichester. But let us be clear, Mr. Speaker if it is $71.3 million dollars, the amount of shares that we already sold is $75 million dollars, which is in a lockbox. So explain to me where the debt is coming from to pay for it?”

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The man who signed the loan note, Said Musa said it vindicated him, but it also put taxpayers back on the hook for at least 33.5 million dollars.

And it’s put Government in an injurious position. So much so, that the Prime Minister has decided to reverse his government‘s previous position and now participate in foreign arbitration proceedings.

At Thursday’s quarterly press conference, he explained why government needed to re-think its position:..

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize

Hon. Dean Barrow

“Clearly the Privy Council ruling does open the door to an attempt on the part of the Belize Bank and the Ashcroft Alliance to recover the sums under the loan that the Privy Council has now found to be valid. Now that the decision has been handed down I expect that the arbitration panel will reconvene. I believe we will have to rethink our position and I believe that we will be represented at the resumed hearings of the arbitration panel since as I said the Privy Council decision clears the way for the bank and the alliance to argue with renewed vigor that the people of Belize need to repay this money that the past prime minister and the past attorney general, the past leader of the PUP and the current leader of the PUP got us on the hook for. I expect that government will have to seek the services of council abroad so that we might defend to the best of our legal resources – the arbitration effort to have government and people pay this money to the bank and to the alliance.”

The arbitration is before the London Court of International Arbitration.

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The Ninth Amendment went back to the House Of Representatives this morning to be passed by the lower House. It should have been automatic, but no piece of legislation has generated as much controversy as the ninth – and with that, the possibility arose that the government side might not get the requisite two thirds majority to pass it into law.

So the stakes were high: First the Prime Minister had to be on a countdown to make sure all 24 of his representatives turned up and would vote for it; second The Prime Minister also had to be waiting on a judgment from the Supreme Court to determine whether it could even be signed into law once it was passed; third dozens of busses with UDP supporters were streaming in from all across the country to cheer on their party in its most difficult, but also its most defining hour.

And maybe that’s why the Prime Minister broke from his personal tradition and walked over from the Administration Building with an entourage of supporters in tow, all the party’s parliamentarians, both Area Representatives and Senators. He walked with a spring in his step because all 24 parliamentarians had shown up and would vote for the amendment and news had just come down that the request for an injunction was dismissed.

First, Barrow went to greet the assembled crowds – which was in the hundreds – and pressed flesh with the ardent supporters – principally from the north, who dominated the frontline.

Read More: 7News

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If you follow international news at all, you’ll probably know what the WIKILEAKS files are. They’re a bunch of about a quarter million diplomatic cables sent to and from US embassies all over the world – copied en masse by a whistleblower and released on the internet – much to the dismay, consternation and embarrassment of the US Government. Well, last week , cables originating from Belize were posted on the WIKILEAKS website. They’re about 250 in total sent from the US Embassy in Belmopan to the State Department in Washington between 2006 and 2010.

Overall, the diplomatic notes aren’t that exciting, mostly they show an unhealthy obsession with the Venezuelan and Cuban government’s assistance programs in Belize. You can read them for yourself through a link at 7newsbelize.com (http://wikileaks.org/origin/168_0.html) – but one of them does stand out – and it was brought to public attention this morning on WAVE Radio’s Fus Ting Da Mawnin.

The cable dates back to 2007, when a US Oil company called Lagoon Resources applied for a Production Sharing Agreement. The October 2007 cable, which was, classified as confidential states that Lagoon Resources did everything necessary to get the PSA, including offering the government higher royalty and production sharing rates – but the PSA went instead to, quote, “a politically connected local company.” And while that is one thing, Lagoon’s people made the allegations that – and we quote from the cable here:

“that the Minister of Natural Resources accepted a bribe of USD 1.5 million from the company that was awarded the contract. Lagoon claimed that the money was routed to the Minister through the purchase of a cable television business in northern Belize.” The minister at that time is now the leader of the opposition, John Briceno and today he readily agreed to comment on the diplomatic cable.

Here’s what he had to say about the allegations:

Jules Vasquez
“Lagoon Resources is claiming that you accepted a bribe of 1.5 million US dollars from the company that was awarded the contract. Lagoon claims the money was routed to the Minister through the purchase of a cable television business in northern Belize. Is this allegation true?”

Hon. John Briceno
“It’s a lie. As the Wikileaks said they are all allegations and there was nothing to prove is. What the fact of the matter is that, yes, my family at that time did buy 2 cable companies and to this date they are still paying the bank and there is not a person that can come and offer any sort of proof to point out that myself or any member of my family have benefitted from any of those decisions that I did with the Ministry of Geology.”

Jules Vasquez
“You had told me at the time – I guess you were aware that Lagoon was making those allegations at that time – and you had told me that you would sue them and a further cable avers to that as well: that someone from the embassy had discussed it with you and you said you would sue them. Why haven’t you sued them if they have made such a slanderous allegation against you?”

Hon. John Briceno
“Well that’s a very good question Jules. What happened is, if you look it was 2007, going on to the 2008 elections and during that time we got caught up into the heat of the elections but if they were to come back to Belize and make those allegations, I will definitely take them to court.”

Jules Vasquez
“Do you wish that you would have done what you said you would have and sought redress in the courts insofar as, then you would have been exonerated and exculpated beyond a reasonable doubt – beyond any doubt, and you would have also – one presumes – that if you had been slandered – make some money off them for the damage to your reputation which continues, to some extent.”

Read More – 7News Belize

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