7 News Belize

WIKLEAKS Hits Belize: US Cable Reported On Allegation of Briceno Corruption
posted (September 6, 2011)
If you follow international news at all, you'll probably know what the WIKILEAKS files are. They're a bunch of about a quarter million diplomatic cables sent to and from US embassies all over the world - copied en masse by a whistleblower and released on the internet - much to the dismay, consternation and embarrassment of the US Government. Well, last week , cables originating from Belize were posted on the WIKILEAKS website. They're about 250 in total sent from the US Embassy in Belmopan to the State Department in Washington between 2006 and 2010.

Overall, the diplomatic notes aren't that exciting, mostly they show an unhealthy obsession with the Venezuelan and Cuban government's assistance programs in Belize. You can read them for yourself through a link at 7newsbelize.com (http://wikileaks.org/origin/168_0.html) - but one of them does stand out - and it was brought to public attention this morning on WAVE Radio's Fus Ting Da Mawnin.

The cable dates back to 2007, when a US Oil company called Lagoon Resources applied for a Production Sharing Agreement. The October 2007 cable, which was, classified as confidential states that Lagoon Resources did everything necessary to get the PSA, including offering the government higher royalty and production sharing rates - but the PSA went instead to, quote, "a politically connected local company." And while that is one thing, Lagoon's people made the allegations that - and we quote from the cable here:

"that the Minister of Natural Resources accepted a bribe of USD 1.5 million from the company that was awarded the contract. Lagoon claimed that the money was routed to the Minister through the purchase of a cable television business in northern Belize." The minister at that time is now the leader of the opposition, John Briceno and today he readily agreed to comment on the diplomatic cable.

Here's what he had to say about the allegations:

Jules Vasquez
"Lagoon Resources is claiming that you accepted a bribe of 1.5 million US dollars from the company that was awarded the contract. Lagoon claims the money was routed to the Minister through the purchase of a cable television business in northern Belize. Is this allegation true?"

Hon. John Briceno
"It's a lie. As the Wikileaks said they are all allegations and there was nothing to prove is. What the fact of the matter is that, yes, my family at that time did buy 2 cable companies and to this date they are still paying the bank and there is not a person that can come and offer any sort of proof to point out that myself or any member of my family have benefitted from any of those decisions that I did with the Ministry of Geology."

Jules Vasquez
"You had told me at the time - I guess you were aware that Lagoon was making those allegations at that time - and you had told me that you would sue them and a further cable avers to that as well: that someone from the embassy had discussed it with you and you said you would sue them. Why haven't you sued them if they have made such a slanderous allegation against you?"

Hon. John Briceno
"Well that's a very good question Jules. What happened is, if you look it was 2007, going on to the 2008 elections and during that time we got caught up into the heat of the elections but if they were to come back to Belize and make those allegations, I will definitely take them to court."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you wish that you would have done what you said you would have and sought redress in the courts insofar as, then you would have been exonerated and exculpated beyond a reasonable doubt - beyond any doubt, and you would have also - one presumes - that if you had been slandered - make some money off them for the damage to your reputation which continues, to some extent."

Hon. John Briceno
"With 20/20 hindsight you could always look back and say that you could have done things better and certainly at that time probably it would have been better if I had taken it at court, but as I said we got into the middle of a campaign and that became a non-issue because the Belizean people never did take up to it and (never) felt that there was any credibility in what was said. That's why I am saying right now that I am repeating and I am challenging the investors from Lagoon Resources for them to come back to Belize and make those allegations and to see if I would not take them to court."

Jules Vasquez
"Now, as you know, I know a little bit about the cable business because our company has involvement it, and I know that one of the principals of ZMT in fact sold you one of those cable companies in Corozal. Is that in any way a related transaction?"

Hon. John Briceno
"Absolutely not. As I said we paid fair market value for that company and we continue to pay for it."

Jules Vasquez
"You as Leader of the Opposition - this is a very serious slander against your reputation. I know that the United States Embassy did not publish it or did not wish it to be published. But it has been published - it's out there on the internet. We know that the US State Department thinks that there was credible information..."

Hon. John Briceno
"That's not true. If you look what the US Department said "allegations." At no time in their cables did they say that they would have believed about the issue of the bribe of the 1.5 million dollars that was made during that time. They just made the point that we, at that time, my family bought 2 cable companies. But as I pointed out, Jules, you can check at the bank, you can check how much money we had to borrow to acquire these companies and we are still paying to this day."

Jules Vasquez
"The fact is that we can't check at the bank because your banking records or your family's banking records are private."

Hon. John Briceno
"I could take you to check it. I have absolutely no problem. I have nothing to hide."

Jules Vasquez
"Will you, at your next meeting with officials of the US Embassy reiterate your denial or your rejection of this characterization?"

Hon. John Briceno
"I am confident that it will have no effect on what I represent and the work that I have done and continue to do and certainly whenever I have the opportunity to meet the Ambassador or any of their officials I am prepared to go through everything that happened during that time - that I can remember - and to assure them that there was absolutely no back handed deal and there was absolutely no issue of any sort of bribes or anything. It was handled all above board. You can check with Mr. Cho right now and he can tell that when I was the Minister we used to do everything through the Department of Geology. I hardly met any of these investors."

Jules Vasquez
"The US - the cable also quotes separately "the Belizean Director of Geology and Petroleum a non-political bureaucrat confirms to us that the decisions made at the department were made not for business reasons but were pre-determined at a higher level for political reasons" and it said "the local company whose shareholders are strong supporters of the PUP."

Hon. John Briceno
"I think that if you look at the date that when that purported quote was given it was certainly long after I had left the ministry."

We await that offered opportunity to review the party leader's family's loan disbursement schedule.

Very important background to all this is that indeed Block 15 was awarded to ZMT international a local, well connected company for terms below what Lagoon was offering.

But Briceno went on record at the time to say that the final terms agreed to for ZMT had been changed after he resigned from Cabinet on June 4, 2007. That means he had proposed a more advantageous set of terms but the minute - of actually the day after he left Cabinet - a new set of terms more favorable to ZMT were agreed upon.

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