We also asked Commissioner Williams about Holly Vasquez. He's the police Sergeant who was the lead investigator in the Mason trial. The evidence he marshaled led to the conviction in the case of the decade.
And, on Friday, in an award ceremony for bravery, he was awarded for competence.
We asked Williams about the up's and down's in this young officer's professional life:
Burglars Fail to Get Into Building, Jack Security
And, going back crime news, there was an attempted robbery at the Belize District Education Centre in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The security guard on the premises was held up for the keys with a knife but when the thieves failed to access the building they consoled themselves with $150.00 from his pocket. Sr. Superintendent Hilberto Romero gave us more details.
Sr. Superintendent Hilberto Romero
"Denzel Halliday security guard reported that about 3 am on Saturday. The 21st of December 2019 he was approached by three male persons who asked for some keys and attempted to enter into the building he was guarding. They could not enter the building and he was robbed of $150.00 cash. Thereafter the male persons made their escape and they also stole some lengths of steel that were in the compound the time."
Tough Talk on LPG
Food is a big part of the Christmas holiday, and if you're been stocking up butane to cook your family's meals, you may have noticed an extreme disparity in prices you're paying for your butane or LPG from one company to the next. That's because there has been a quiet commercial war being the local Belizean distributors and the 3 mega butane companies from Central America that are owned by own by 3 brothers from one Mexican family.
The best information on the industry suggests that ever since the government passed the National Liquified Petroleum Gas Project Law, the 3 big companies have been trying to re-establish their dominance on the LPG market. They used to control the importation of LPG, but with the Barrow Administration's change, starting next year, that's going to change. The public-private entity, the National Gas Company, will be responsible for all importation of butane into the country. They will then lease the retailing of the fuel to the companies in Belize that will actually carry out the distribution.
It's supposed to be a consumer protection measure, but those within the industry say that the 3 Central American butane companies have engaged in predatory pricing to undercut their competitors and slowly force them out of business.
As of earlier this month, those predatory pricing practices like this are illegal.
A local group of LPG companies, who call themselves the LPG Gas Suppliers and Distributors, sent out a press release 10 days ago to give some insight into how the predatory pricing has affected the market.
Their release says, quote, "Since the last price change authorized by the… (BBS) on November 15th, 2019, these 3 Mexican companies have consistently remained non-compliant with the said regulation. In their press release, dated, December 9th… they make the false claim that they are abiding by the BBS price regulation… However, the below invoices show that on the same date of their press release, they were still not in compliance as they falsely claim. The controlled price, as of today for Belmopan is $4.84 per gallon, but… we see the 3 Mexican companies at $4.20 per gallon, in blatant non-compliance with the regulated prices…" End quote.
They note that the price floor that the Government implemented with the Supplies Control Amendment Bill may not be the best practice in the market, but it is necessary when suppliers decide to collude against the consumer.
Here's what the Prime Minister had to say about the issue last week when the press asked about it:
Reporter
"There is criticism that the Government is choosing winners and losers in terms of who it defends, that this issue with unfair pricing has happened in the past. What do you say to that and then-â€
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"No, no, no. Unfair pricing in the sense of those that control the importation, and in fact the distribution, have, in the past, have tried - or not tried, succeeded, oftentimes against the wishes of the Government, but precisely because they were able to hold us to ransom to put the prices at a level that’s unfair to consumers, in terms of being exorbitant. This is a whole new strategy, the effort to engage in predatory pricing, to actually take the prices down below even the acquisition costs, because they have deep pockets, in an effort to force out the local Belizean distribution. The government is going to allow that to happen, and we’re absolutely confident that we did the right thing when we took the measures that we took."
Reporter
"The observation is - I’m not saying in relation to the gas companies, or butane, but that it has occurred in other sectors, and the Government is simply choosing to protect the butane distributors."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"Look, these are Belizeans, you know. These retailers, and we have a duty to protect them, and we have a larger duty to protect the public. It doesn’t take even an iota of common sense to know that once the companies that currently control the importation would have forced out the local Belizean distributors, they would then have taken the prices, not just back up, but to a point that would inflict a terrible burden on the consumers. So, we have no doubt, I repeat, that we did absolutely the right thing. If the circumstances repeated themselves, we’d do absolutely the same thing all over again."
The Press release from the local LPG suppliers ends saying, quote, "We invite the general public to raise their voices and stand in solidarity with local businesses and the Association of LPG Gas Distributors, unless, we allow ourselves to be dominated and dictated by foreigners and foreign interests once again."
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