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Yesterday we covered a lot of what the Prime Minister had to say at his press conference – but one bit that got left out is his almost dismissive remarks about the special agreement. The subject was introduced because 7NEWS has obtained a copy of a note sent from government’s legal advisor Gian Ghandi to the Cabinet Secretary James Murphy. Ghandi cautions that the question to be asked in the referendum - as set out in the compromis is, quote, “incomplete and deceptively simple.” Ghandi draws this conclusion because the question refers only to the forum where the dispute is to be settled which is the International Court of Justice but fails to say that the judgment is binding. Responding to that view of his legal advisor, Barrow called it “editorial opinion” and said that the entire process of going to the ICJ may turn out to be, much ado about nothing.

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“So there is no guarantee that the Congress of Guatemala will approve the Special Agreement as it is and that we will then pass it through for the referendum question to be asked in Guatemala. They are in no rush to go to the Congress as far as I can determine and it just seems to me that there is a distinct possibility that this whole thing will unravel and not as a consequence of any fault on the part of Belize. I think that we did have a duty to the international community in the context of our needing their friendship and their support diplomatically and otherwise, we did have a duty to go as far as we have gone – to negotiate a special agreement, to ratify in this country as we need to do that special agreement. Thereafter I think our duty ceases. If the Guatemalans can get through their processes so that the thing can be put to a referendum then we go to a referendum. We have and can have no duty to vote any particular way in that referendum. But I am saying even before you can get to the referendum look at the internal difficulties in Guatemala and recognize that this may all prove to be much ado about nothing.”

And while Prime Minister Barrow is clearly not too confident in the process – he was more confident that eventually the offending structure in Jalacte will be moved. As he aid yesterday, there is no timeline. But who is responsible for allowing the concrete based structure to be built in the first place? That took some weeks meaning that someone was sleeping at the wheel. Last night on Lik Road, host and Housing Minister Michael Finnegan asked his Cabinet colleague Wilfred Elrington who is to blame. Elrington said it’s the military’s fault.

Hon. Michael Finnegan,
“Why the government of Belize were notified so late about this structure when all this thing was going on? When the government was informed about the whole situation, everything was done put in place so somebody nuh the do their job properly."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington,
“That is a question that you need to ask of the Minister of Defense, the Minister responsible for defense because they are the ones who had their people on the ground from day to day. We had indications that the military was in fact aware of it from the time the clearing was done because the area was cleared before any construction started and we certainly at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had alerted the Ministry of Defense quite early, from early November.”

Hon. Michael Finnegan,
“But as Minister of Foreign Affairs you don’t ask your colleague how this slip unu, why so late of information when all of this done tek place?”

Hon. Wilfred Elrington,
“Well you were in Cabinet when we asked the Minister to furnish the information and he has not gotten back to us as yet.”

And while he was asking the questions on Lik Road last night, today Finnegan was the one fielding them – by the hundreds. This morning an estimated 300 persons showed up at his Thursday morning clinic. That’s much more than usual and it’s because those wanting to tap into the Venezuelan housing fund came from all over to ask him to put them into the program. The program is designed to be channelled through all thirty one area representatives.