Courtenay Criticizes Peyrefitte for Slighting Saudi Government’s Loan

Isabel Bennett-Moody

Senator Courtenay criticized Peyrefitte for speaking of the Saudi’s gesture to offer Belize the loan as a joke. Courtenay stated that the loan came soon after Belize and Saudi Arabia cemented diplomatic ties. Meanwhile, Senator Isabel Bennett-Moody, who is a career administrative nurse, answered the question raised by Senator Chanona.

Isabel Bennett-Moody, P.U.P Senator

“In the context of primary healthcare that is more focused on prevention. Tertiary healthcare is for us as a country to be able to deliver care at a higher level, for example, persons that are focusing or has needs for dialysis, persons, as you would have rightly, cited if there is a third degree burn and, or there is massive road traffic, collisions. And so even though you have a tertiary institution in the country right now, which is the only one that we have, that being Karl Heusner, obviously for us to be able to provide tertiary care for somebody of those categories that need that quality of healthcare to be transported all the way from Punta Gorda into Belize City, it decreases the life chances and it increases the complexity.”

Eamon Courtenay

Eamon Courtenay, Leader Government Senator

“To stand in this Senate, an honorable house and mock the crowned Prince of Saudi Arabia is wrong. Senator Peyrefitte criticized the Saudis, but they – I signed it last year in New York, less than a year established diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia. They gave us a grant of $3 million, a loan for a tertiary care and learning hospital in less than a year, approved financing for a solar plant in less than a year, 60 megawatts. And he has the audacity to come in here and act in a racist and Islamophobic way is to be condemned. Madam President, that is not the way you speak about your development partners.”