Facebook Post Questions Government’s Role in Stake Bank Intervention

Today, a Facebook page called Belize Marine Life posted an intriguing update titled “Stealing Stake Bank.” The author posed a provocative question: which Minister promised approval for this and why? While the post didn’t give names, it referred to two key parcels of land. The first is a sixteen-acre section, part of the Stake Bank port project, described as the heart of a much larger development. This area is surrounded by twenty-three acres owned by Michael Feinstein, which is currently tied up in court. The post revealed that confidential emails, sent before the receivership, showed a proposed thirty-acre expansion in the sale to MSC Cruises. This expansion goes beyond the sixteen-acre port project and the twenty-three acres owned by Feinstein. The author suggested that this expansion was planned without Feinstein’s knowledge, highlighting how OPSA, the Honduran interest, and the bank were not only trying to take control of the project but also planning to enlarge it without his involvement. The post hinted at a, “backroom deal” that would have been impossible without political assurances, and questioned the cost and recipients of these assurances. Prime Minister John Briceño addressed the issue on “Open Your Eyes” today, stating that the government is simply trying to act as an honest broker in this situation.

 

Isani Cayetano

“There’s also a lawsuit before the court regarding the compulsory acquisition of the twenty-three acres of land, and the owner is essentially saying that he wants a particular sum for the overall twenty-three acres of land, and, of course, he wants one dollar and twenty-five cents, if I’m not mistaken, in perpetuity.”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“So, you think he’s serious to sell?”

 

Isani Cayetano

“Well, I’m not sure where he stands on that. He has placed that on the record that that’s what he’s asking for. I am asking you, where does your administration stand on that outside of what is taking place before the court?”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Well, first of all, when there are issues with court, you have to be careful what you say. I don’t want to prejudice the case in any way whatsoever. All we’ve been trying to do is to be an honest broker. Here is a massive investment. It’s becoming an eyesore because nothing is happening there. And the longer we take to settle this, the worse it’s going to get. As it is, I think they’ve already had almost three acres of erosion. It washed away, because nobody’s there to, to put in the seawalls and to put in the seawalls and to protect it and so forth, I’ve been told. I’ve not been there. I’ve been there only once with one of the local investors when he went to show me and you could see it’s a massive investment. So in all of these buildings, if you don’t take care of it, rust is going to get in. It’s going to go to nothing. I think we as a responsible government, it’s a huge investment, if it was two people fighting over a way smaller investment of course, we’re not going to get involved. But remember, successive governments have said that this project is in the national interest of Belize. When it came to – and this started out way back under the PUP, the Musa government, when they came with a plan to say, well, we want to purchase this because we want to do this cruise port, which was very, it’s still very important. And we agreed to it. The UDP government, in two occasions, came to the House, passed legislation saying that Belize was going to support this because it’s in the national interest. Fast forward to our time now, here’s a dispute over a project that successive governments have said is in the national interest of Belize. We got involved as honest brokers, trying to find a compromise between the two groups. But what – well, they, they can’t come to an agreement. I don’t want to prejudice or give my – how I feel about it, but they can’t come to a compromise. So know, here comes the investors that really have the money and they’re the ones that put up the money, most of the money, come to us, “Well we can’t come to an agreement.” Now we have MSC, one of the largest cruise lines. And also they do containers. They move containers – the largest company to move containers around the world. They have over two hundred thousand people working. They’re saying, “Well, now, we’d be interested, but we don’t want to get into this mess. The only way we’d be interested is if this mess is settled, and we buy over then.” So that the only way we can do that is by compulsorily acquiring land. In Cabinet, we had a long discussion, and the agreement was that the government and people of Belize must be protected from any lawsuits, that if there’s any lawsuits, tax payers will not pay a single dollar, a single dime.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“A sort of indemnity.”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I’m coming to the point. So based on that, we decided we want an indemnity, and not only the indemnity, but we also need a deposit of about seven million dollars in the name of the Government of Belize at the Atlantic Bank. So once we felt that we – and we went through the indemnity. We had our lawyers going back and forth to ensure that it’s a solid indemnity. We said, okay, we are going to pro proceed. We put out the notice basically to tell the owner come, we want to acquire it, can we come to an agreement? Same terms. So obviously it’s not happening. Now they went to court again and we have to wait to see what the court is going to say on this matter and at the same time, well we’re hoping now MSC and met with them here. Albino and two other top people from MSC and said they’re excited. They came for the first time to Belize. And they flew by helicopter and look at the Blue Hole, the reef, the country. They’re excited. And there he says, “you guys are one of the most beautiful countries. We want in.” We spoke to them about the Port of Belize and they say, “well, we’re prepared to do this and also consider investing in the container portion of the port. So, exciting things are coming but we need to get things done. We need to solve these problems to be able to go to the next point.”