So did the invitation even exist? Well, tonight we know that the President of the Senate saw it, so what happened after that? Courtney Menzies put some of the pieces together.

Since the proposed Speednet acquisition first came to light, the social partners have been requesting additional information from BTL. Their requests have so far been ignored-or that's what they thought.

Yesterday, BTL's chairman, Mark Lizarraga, revealed that they had invited the independent senators to the table, but that they refused the invite:

Markhelm Lizarraga, Chairman BTL
"We've extended our hand to the independent senators. Have they come? No. We've extended on several times for them and they refused. We sent a letter to the Senate willing to make a presentation there. So we're willing to meet with anybody that wants to truly listen; (but) if you have your own agenda..."

When we asked three of the four independent senators about that claim yesterday, they said they received no such invitation.

Following up on this, last night, Senator for NGOs Janelle Chanona made an unusually plain-spoken post, saying, quote:

"For the public's information and official record, as an independent Senator, I confirm that no invitation has ever been extended to me verbally or received by me in writing or via email or forwarded to me by any person or persons from Belize Telemedia Limited or from any third party at BTL's request. If such an easily verifiable statement can be said with such authority, it would make a reasonable person wonder what else is also being inaccurately conveyed just as authoritatively." End quote.

This morning, BTL provided 7News with a February 5th letter to the President of the Senate, Carolyn Trench Sandiford, requesting "the opportunity to brief the Honourable Members of the Senate on a strategic proposal concerning Speednet Communications Ltd."

They also provided a screenshot of a response from the President acknowledging receipt, copied to the Clerk, Clarita Pech.

The independent senators then requested a formal clarification from Clerk Pech on whether any meeting request was ever sent. She responded, "To date, the Office has not received any invitations or requests for meetings from Belize Telemedia Limited or persons acting on its behalf addressed to the independent Senators."

Senators Janelle Chanona, Glenfield Dennison, and Kevin Herrera also reconfirmed to 7News this morning that they had not received any invite. This morning, they also issued a press release stating, quote: "No invitation from Belize Telemedia Limited, verbal or written, has ever been received by any of the Independent Senators or their respective organizations at any point from any representatives of BTL or from any third party on BTL's behalf to discuss any aspect of the proposed acquisition of commercial interests by BTL." End quote.

We have sought comment from Senate President Carolyn Trench Sandiford, who was the recipient of that letter from BTL, but up to news time, we have not received a response.

Additionally, in their press release, the independent senators stated that they have also signed and sent separate letters to the chair of the PUC, the AG, the chair of BTL, and the Office of the PM to directly request information relevant to the proposed acquisition of Speednet.

We reached out to President Carolyn Trench Sandiford, prompting a press release from the National Assembly. The 12-point release details the events that transpired between February 6th when the President received the invite, and today.

The release explains that on that same day, Minister Michel Chebat announced a pause in the discussion relating to the acquisition. Then, the President, along with the clerk, discussed the best way forward. The release states, quote, "It was the decision of the President at the time, following consultation with the Clerk, that, while the matter was one of public importance and the request was to be granted, it was necessary to monitor the acquisition process to determine the appropriate date and time for scheduling the request. This determination would take into consideration the pause in discussions, the volume of matters before the Senate, other commitments of the National Assembly, and the approaching recess period." End quote.

The release then adds that, once a determination was made, they would reach back out to BTL to discuss a time and place, and then inform the senators. It ends by explaining that now that BTL has approved the acquisition, the President will now respond to the CEO's request with a proposed date and time for an information session for the senators.

In a notable aside, word reaching 7News is that the independent senators are prepared to publicly debate BTL and its board of management on the acquisition in a town hall style.