It’s a question we hear many times every day at 7NEWS: “what happened to the 10 million?” The question, of course, is about the supposedly missing Venezuelan money, US$10 million of it – queried in a February 8th letter from the Venezuelan Social Development Bank to Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And while the questions persist, the answers are very few. Tonight the latest word is, again, that there is no word.
But there is a small development. Yesterday, Financial Secretary Joe Waight sent letter of inquiry #2 –and attached letter #1 to Luis Arias Bellorin, the Vice President of the Venezuelan Bank for Economic Development, Bandes. Today, CEO in the Prime Minister’s Office Audrey Wallace told us that Bellorin’s secretary has confirmed that he has seen the letter. No word on when a reply or anything like that may follow – but until then, the silence from Caracas, the Venezuelan Embassy in Belize and former Prime Minister Said Musa is deafening. And the present Belize government continues to play it cool – un-nervingly so, say its critics. No emissary has been sent to Caracas from Belmopan – and we are told that even direct phone contact has been limited.
