The Petrocaribe Loan Act – it's already law – but the public debate about it continues – and opponents in the opposition and the say they are
gaining steam. Well, today Prime Minister Dean Barrow held a press conference to try and cool them off, and create his own momentum for the
Petrocaribe funded programme of government spending. He did this at the Biltmore before the largest press conference crowd we've seen in years:
about 110 people crowded into a conference room for an exceptionally long two hours 16 minute press conference. But while PM Barrow made the case
for Petrocaribe inside, outside the opposition struck with a quickly organised protest. Tonight you'll hear both sides of the story. But we start
inside the press conference where the PM took a break from his usual swagger and appeared almost contrite when he explained why his administration
never took the Petrocaribe borrowing to the House in the first place:…
Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"Hindsight is always twenty twenty, the move that completes now is that we never went to parliament right at the time we signed the restart. If a house
wife is given credit by the shopkeeper for the groceries she receives. She only pays a portion up front and then she pays the rest of her bills over
time on a monthly arrangement - does anyone see the credit extended by the shopkeeper as a loan to the house wife? No. And it was in that context that
they said initially, this is not a loan, this is the special credit arrangement under this bilateral and multilateral programme. Anyway, that is why we
initially didn't believe we had to go to the house for approval to enter to the PetroCaribe arrangement."
"It was only Channel 7 that later argued - and this was at the public opening as I recollect of the new PetroCaribe premises. Here it is not hiding
anything, on Coney drive. It was only then Jules said to me, look man, this thing is in fact a form of loan. We thought, let us try to avoid any
controversy - obviously we never succeeded; by going to the house and let us try our level best, let us jump through hoops to see if there is some way
we can fit this peculiar creature into the finance and audit reform act."
"There the matter should have rest - but the PUP as I said, had sign the original PetroCaribe agreement, collected the 40 million dollars and never
ever gone to the national assembly for approval or even reporting. Insisted that they would still legally seek to kill the programme. I'm not flinging
down the gauntlet to anyone, but is as measured and in as unambiguous a fashion as possible, I repeatedly declare that for the good of the people,
PetroCaribe and PetroCaribe loan act is here to stay."
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