Last night on this newscast, Senior Counsels Eamon Courtenay and Godfrey Smith lashed Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Smith said he was bawling over a simple letter, while Courtenay exposed the fact that the Prime Minister's Law firm Barrow and William is still working for Michael Ashcroft.
The Ashcroft Attorneys were reacting to the characterization the Barrow Administration had heaped upon them as what the Latin Americans call "vendepatrias", sellouts or, in sterner language, traitors.
Smith was so dubbed because of the cautionary letter he wrote to a prospective foreign investor in Telemedia; Courtenay, for appearing at the IMF in Washington with another Ashcroft attorney Lord Peter Goldsmith encouraging them, in Barrow's words, to "blackball" Belize.
They of course bristled at the characterization and you saw what happened next. But today Barrow battled back, and agreed to an interview to answer the tough question of whether his law firm still does work for the Ashcroft empire. He sat down with Jules Vasquez this afternoon and first spoke generally about the actions of Smith and Courtenay:..
Jules Vasquez
"Mr. Smith claims that you are a wimp because you did not… you made all this bold and ballsy declarations in the house, but when a little letter is sent, in his words, you start bawl."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I bawl on behalf of the people of this country and Mr. Smith must accept that what he has done is outrageously against the interest of Belize. How can you claim to be discharging professional responsibilities in terms of a lawyer/client relationship and expect that people will accept that that covers the kind of behavior that is without a doubt almost treasonous in terms of the interest of this country."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you upset because of what the letter states, or because of what it is trying to do? Which it is trying to scuttle any attempts at bringing in this key strategic investor."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I am upset for both reasons but particularly the latter reason. How can a Belizean…when Goldsmith does it; when Michael Ashcroft's attorneys from the UK do it, it is unpleasant; it is distasteful but it is not nearly as hurtful as harmful as when a national of this country does it."
Jules Vasquez
"As an attorney would you not do this for a client?"
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Absolutely not, that's just the point. Eamon Courtenay for example says that Barrow and Williams still does mortgage work for the Belize Bank. Let's assume for a moment that that is true and that it is not that clients of the Belize Bank insist that their mortgages go to Barrow and Williams. There is nothing wrong with that. Their right to represent Michael Ashcroft is untrammeled but the nature of that representation is where I think right thinking Belizeans draw the line. I used to represent Michael Ashcroft full when I was in opposition, when I was practicing full time. As soon as things reached a point where I saw that that representation would put me on a collision course with the interest of the Belizean people, I stood up and publicly denounced what was happening."
Jules Vasquez
"Mr. Courtenay said yesterday that your law firm is on the payroll of the Belize Bank. You said that let's suppose it is. Is it?"
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I am in no doubt that mortgages come in to Barrow and Williams from the Belize Bank whether those mortgages come because clients that are making loans, clients of the Belize Bank insist that the work goes to Barrow and Williams, I am not sure. I am certainly not there on a day to day basis. But I am saying even if the Belize Bank continues for and of itself to give work to Barrow and Williams, that is a professional relationship about which you can't query and that certainly doesn't fix me in any particular spot I made it absolutely plain, nobody not Lord Ashcroft not anybody, can buy me. If thereafter, knowing that I am where he is concerned and where doing anything against my country is concerned, incorruptible, if he still wants to take his legitimate business to Barrow and Williams. more power to him and more power to Barrow and Williams."
Jules Vasquez
"However if you take that to its logical extensions if Barrow and Williams is in receipt of fees paid by the Belize Bank aren't you then upholding the same regime which has in your words worked to oppress and undermine the national interest."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Absolutely not, you have to draw the distinction between what is legitimate and what is illegitimate."
Jules Vasquez
"You can see that if one concludes that what you did was against the national interest by nationalizing, that citizen Ashcroft deserves a robust defense in order to redress his rights against your excessive act of nationalization, you can't see how that would be an interpretation?"
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"And that's why the courts are open to him."
Jules Vasquez
"Yes but you can see how a pursuit of these rights, one would write to a foreign head of foreign executive saying let the buyer beware because you are dealing with crazy people."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"When you will write to these people and completely distort the picture, when you will say not that I and my group am involved in a fight with the government, a fight that the government has legitimately in fact put in motion given all the advantage that I try to take, when you will suggest that this is wholesale situation occurring, that investors are plural and across a broad spectrum are dissatisfied with the government, then you are not just being dishonest, you are not just distorting the picture, you are an absolute liar."
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