Email

Print

They may have been emboldened by the words of the Minister of Natural Resources who gave an emphatic no to the project weeks ago. Well he's also standing that ground and over the last two days as he spoke to the press he shared the many facets of why he believes Vulcan is the wrong move for the village.

Gales Point is a small village but it looms large in the cultural consciousness of Belize.

Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"I'm on record saying that in the particular case of Vulcan, we just can't continue with that. Several things are pretty clear, the first thing being the residents in that community are resolutely, very clearly, unmistakably no to that kind of development coming in their community. I think the second point is that for sure you will have massive environmental damage, I mean you are talking about animals or Marin life or hicketee, turtles, manatees, fishes, trees, mountains, those will never be the same and to what end? Why do we want to go down that road? So that we can get a few jobs here and a few pennies there and the truth of the matter is that a wealthy multinational will just exploit our raw resources and just export that and I've said this before, it smacks a bit of colonialism, it smacks a bit of slavery and in particular, the people of Gales Point Manatee, the ancestors of the people there now risked life and limb to escape from slavery hundreds of years ago. They are very clear about that, their ancestors were very clear that we can't, in particular, their ancestors were sick and tired of being used and abused, sick and tired of being worked for free in inhuman conditions. And so they up and left and went to the haven of Gales Point, Gales Point Manatee to be precise. Why? Because rich, wealthy slave owners were exploiting the natural resources, the raw resources of this country and exporting it and so the present residents of Gales Point Manatee are honoring their ancestors by resolutely standing up and resolutely, clearly, unmistakably saying to Vulcan, no. the rest of us in the country, those of us in the government, have a moral duty and obligation, responsibility to these folks to stand with them and say no to that kind of stuff, no matter how they twist and try to come back and try to repackage it and try to say all kinds of stuff, like no means no."

And that's been Hyde's consistent message from the start but he laid it out plainer than ever yesterday when he gave reporters his rationale for choosing not to attend a Vulcan meeting and not bothering to read the entirety of the U.S. Embassy they sent advocating on Vulcan's behalf.

Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Natural Resources
"We got a communication from the U.S. Embassy requesting a meeting with myself I think that was last week but I did not avail them of a meeting. I think they met our CEO and mining director last week."

"We are a sovereign and independent nation, we are supposed to be able to make decisions for ourselves or else what else has independence been about, 41 years into independence we should have the right, we should have the power to say to any company, you know what your money is not good here. You know what, thanks but it's okay. We do not want that kind of investment. We are concerned about other issues and so you may want to move on to another country. We have that right we are an independent sovereign nation. If we're not, if we can't do that then we're not. So, you know I think we have the wherewithal and we have the independence and we have the sovereignty to stand up and make our own decisions where this is concerned."

Part of that decision could involve GOB refusing to renew Vulcan's exploratory permit when it expires in a little over a month.

Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Natural Resources
"I, that license or that exploration permit will expire in November. I don't think that a lot is going on there. It's really collecting data exploratory stuff, trying to determine whether it's feasible to do mining there. I believe that is the intent of an exploratory license. It is very clear that they have discovered it is commercially feasible to do mining there since they refused no as the final answer. So, I think all efforts where they are concerned is about trying to change people's minds, trying to convince the people of, I'll be kind, and say convince the people of Gales Point Manatee that this is a good thing for them. When everybody, all right-thinking people know it's a bad thing for the people of Gales Point Manatee and a bad thing for the country of Belize."

Hyde went on to provide an example of another investor whose business dealings in Belize have been famously controversial.

Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Natural Resources
"Ultimately, just yesterday we had to go to the parliament to approve U.S. 38 million dollars for Micheal Ashcroft to settle the BISL issue. That is US 38 million dollars that we could have found 1000 ways to spend to ameliorate the lives of our people to transform the lives of our people but we had to pay that."

"A few years ago we had to pay 560 million dollars to the same gentleman for a company that our experts, the government's experts said did not value more than 100 million dollars. Why did we have to go down that same road again?"

"For me this whole Vulcan situation kind of reminds me of Ashcroft there are some people who are just too big for this country. George Price never entertained those kinds of people because we are a small country, we are a peaceful haven, we are blessed with a whole lot of things and we really should pick and choose whom we want in our country and whom we want to invest in our country."

Vulcan's rep in a comment this week told 7 News that Vulcan Materials looked at several sites but in the end, the determining factor when choosing White Ridge was the quality of the material, it's proximity to the water, and location's proximity to their U.S. market.