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Jules Vasquez tuned in to the morning session:

Executive Director of BELTRAIDE Leroy Almendarez was involved in the Barrow Administration's technical analysis of the Portico Port of Magical Belize projects on behalf of BELTRAIDE. He said the project never met the requirements during his review:

Leroy Almendarez, BELTRAIDE - Exec. Director
"They satisfied the proof of funding, no. Have you satisfied the fully EIA or what is requested? And this is for any entity. If they are not satisfied then it's an incomplete proposal."

Interviewer
"So since these submissions were not met in step four, that means this project should have been at step three then."

Leroy Almendarez, BELTRAIDE - Exec. Director
"I believe so. I believe so. And as a matter of fact they were notified. They were notified."

Interviewer
"Who notified them?"

Leroy Almendarez, BELTRAIDE - Exec. Director
"Well, they were notified that these things were outstanding. There were still those outstanding requirements."

"The thing about proof of funding and whether or not the full EIA was conducted. And if any entity does not provide those things or is substantiated by its presence in the application, then it shouldn't move."

But it did move and it was signed with a vast buffet of concessions:

Senator Keven Herrera
"Incentives offered under the definitive agreement or the one we've seen."

Leroy Almendarez, BELTRAIDE - Exec. Director
"I haven't seen it. Let me state specifically, I haven't seen it, I haven't read it."

"I have not seen an investment where some entity just got blanketed whatever is it that they wanted."

Almendarez however made it clear that he has not seen or read the definitive agreement:

Leroy Almendarez, BELTRAIDE - Exec. Director
"I would be willing to read it or read anything that goes through a legal process. and through the legal processes, that is how it materializes. In that sense, yes. But if you were asking me to read something that, as far as I know, doesn't exist, then why then would I read it and to give information on it for what purpose?"

"As far as I know, there is no definitive agreement. Whatever exists out there, I will not honor it, to read it, simply because it did not go through the process and as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't exist."

But it does - which Alemndarez said, shocked him:

Leroy Almendarez, BELTRAIDE - Exec. Director
"But to know that one was signed, to know that something was signed outside of the knowledge of those who may or should have known about it. to know that something could have been signed when if something did not go through the full process."

"It does open your eyes, and I think that's where the shock would have come in, because as far as I know, that thing called a definitive agreement in terms of process, it did not reach there. So yes, I was shocked."

The afternoon session with Lands Commissioner Talbert Brackett was uneventful because he mostly stonewalled the Senators. We'll have a quick recap of that tomorrow.