And while Contreras bears watching - like we said, the Briceno Administration still seeks to work out a new definitive agreement with Royal Caribbean.
The PM says he has met with the Vice Presidents of Royal Caribbean in his office and they seem prepared to accept reduced economic terms:
Reporter:
"The opposition is saying this thing that you all should pull back your support and they're also saying there should be no negotiations with a company like portico. But is there any reticence now from Royal Caribbean from what you're getting from those discussions?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"See this is the hypocrisy of the Leader of the Opposition, they were the ones that were doing all negotiations right up to when they signed the UDP definitive agreement and now to say we should not, listen, I'll repeat it, we should always do what is in the best interest of Belize, I've always supported and that's the irony of this, we have supported Michael Feinstein every step of the way. I don't want to say what all I have done for him as prime minister but he knows it, but his project is stalled. Waterloo, we gave them an opportunity to go to the NEAC as I said to the main investor from Waterloo, as long as you go through and you get your NEAC approval, the government will support you. Portico for one reason or the other, got approval from the NEAC, now they're working on the implementation plan, but between working towards their implementation plan there's a number of things they have to do, they have to look for other investors. When they got Royal Caribbean and Bukalis, two internationally recognized companies, they came to us and said we are prepared to invest. The people from Royal Caribbean, two of the Vice Presidents, I met with them personally in my office in Belize City and they said we are in, we think this is the best place because it will have, you could minimize, or they believe it will minimize whatever changes or damages you have to the environment because whenever you do any construction, there's an effect, positive and negative, and they believe that is the best spot and that's why they said they want to invest there. But because it's such a large investment they said we want to ensure that the National Assembly, as should be done like with BSI and Stake Bank and Harvest Caye and others that they want to ensure that once that is passed, they're prepared to come here, so all we are doing, we're just trying to facilitate and project that was started before our time."
