Last week, faster than you could say, "wheel and come again" government had to reverse its position on undersea seismic testing - and send the Northern Explorer vessel away, pronto. The vessel had already gone out into the seas, which incensed the conservation minded citizens of San Pedro. They made their displeasure known to their area representative Manuel "Junior" Heredia - at a stormy consultation in the island town. Within two hours of getting an ultimatum from the San Pedranos at the consultation, Government had to issue sheepish release, saying the seismic survey would stop immediately. It's the kind of real-time public-policy reversal which you just don't see - and it's indicative of a weary government which can scarcely afford any more public pushback, and a populace which is fed up with what they see Belmopan's high-handedness. Now, Belmopan got the message, alright, but the messenger also faced a kind of public political lynching. On Saturday, we asked Juniour Heredia about the quite remarkable sequence of events:...
Jules Vasquez, 7News
"You spoke earlier about listening to stakeholders. You had a very strong dose of that earlier this week at the town meeting in San Pedro town. Explain to me, how do you feel about your standing in the community after you were braced at the consultation, and then you had to go and, ah, as they say, wheel and come again, quickly."
Hon. Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism
"Jules, I believe that people put us over there to govern and to try to do the best for this country and for the constituency that we represent, but again I have to admit that I am a part of cabinet and decisions are taken there. Whenever a cabinet paper is tabled, it means to say that it has gone to your technical people to advise you as to what is best."
"The minister responsible had every confidence that this is something that will not necessarily cause damage to marine life as is being said. That it will not damage our reef. And I personally believe indeed that this survey wouldn't have caused any damage to our reef."
"But people feel otherwise, Jules. I have to respect the wishes of the people. And I think you have seen that we are a government that listens. One thing that I must say I personally believe that we were short in the consultation or presentation to the public, that I believe and I have to admit that there was not sufficient, or probably, proper consultation with the public. Again, you will find that, ehm, NGO's like my good friends in OCEANA, I think they went a little too far as to what they were telling to the public, but admit they did a fantastic job in trying to mobilize. They have the money, noh, more than government probably, so they can mobilize it."
Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Minister, what was your conversation like with the Prime Minister after that rough consultation where you were braced by your community. Did you call him and say, "listen we got to shut this down!"
Hon. Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism
"You know, it's never easy to do. I called him and I said what is the situation, and it is not an easy thing for me when you have people from not only my constituency but from other NGO's form the length and breadth of this country arriving over there in the second part in the afternoon. In the morning it was terrible, and that is where I definitely cannot agree with the behavior of people when people don't even want to look at a presentation, or are saying we already decided our minds what we want, and no matter what."
Jules Vasquez, 7News
"That's also because you consulted after you made the decision, after the boat was already in the water."
Hon. Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism
"There was consultation with OCEANA, there had been, even though they said "none" noh? But that is why I said earlier we lacked some consultation but again, people shouldn't behave that way. We have to ehm, we have to give and take in life man. And I have been very good t that giving and taking, but i was totally depressed with the manner and the attitude of many of the people around there."
Jules Vasquez, 7News
"But those are your constituents."
Hon. Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism
"No but I believe there was a political agenda within what was being done, right?"
Jules Vasquez, 7News
"But then if there was a political agenda, that means it shows that you are weak or that your government is weak because if just a crowd, a roomful of people can push back a national initiative to do seismic testing it's indicative the government is weak, it had to run around in two hours."
Hon. Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism
"Look, confrontation, I don't believe in confrontation, right? And what these people had in mind to go and, ehm, barricade the boat over there, the immediately as a fisherman and knowing San Pedro and knowing the people over there, that wouldn't be anything nice. The idea was to go over there, do the, probably an accident might happen over there and then to say, you see this is what this government wanted, that was the main idea behind. And if we have enough already with what we are passing through as a government, and I believe we cannot allow any more of this to be happening as a responsible government even though you might say it looks weaker, there are times when it is better for people to say that you are rather than a disaster happening at sea, and the lives of people are endangered. That is the last thing that I believe should happen."
We noted that Northern Explorer belongs to the Global Seismic Testing organization, Seabird Explorations. We understand that Seabird Explorations was subcontracted by the American company, TGS, to conduct the seismic surveys in the 3 countries that are partners of this regional data gathering project. Sources from the conservation community tell us that the Northern Explorer arrived in Belizean waters ahead of schedule because they completed their survey work in Mexico's exclusive economic zone a bit early.
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