PM Rejects Claim He Misrepresented Letter

Prime Minister John Briceño says his government isn’t losing any sleep over a letter the Feinstein Group sent to U.S. Congressman Brian Mast about the stalled Stake Bank project, even after Mast took the issue to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to question Belize’s investment climate. But the back‑and‑forth didn’t end there. This week the Prime Minister was accused of misrepresenting a letter from Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez during a morning show interview, a claim he firmly rejects, calling it simply untrue.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I did not say anything about the Stake Bank issue. The question was about that but I said, here we have a congressman that gave us raving reviews about working with the private sector in this issue with agriculture. I did not link that to Stake Bank in the least. But we know what is going on with Stake Bank, that an individual is paying for these and when you look at some of these pages, they are pages that just popped up or hardly anybody watches. The truth of the matter is that has gone to court and the truth of the matter is that the upper court from Belize has ruled in favor that the government doe shave a right to acquire in the best interest. Now, Mr. Feinstein and his team, if they want to appeal, that is their right and they have done that. They are going to the Court of Appeals. We have a judicial system that is fair and that works. So, we are not concerned about that.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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