There is no telephone service anywhere in the country of Belize tonight.
BTL's national network went down sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 am this morning and Speednet's system went down shortly after 8:00 am. The official explanation is that the BTL switch has had a complete failure and BTL staffers are not going to fix it until some critical BTL ownership matters are straightened out.
That's the official gloss, but it is in fact a deliberate plan by BTL's employees to switch off the system. All 450 of those employees countrywide sat out of work today effectively shutting down the country's largest and most profitable company. The plan is to use the crippling and costly national shutdown to force government to the negotiating table.
What do the workers want? As they told us on this newscast two nights ago, they want equity in the company they work for: specifically, the 37% of BTL shares that government is presently holding. Our 7NEWS team has been covering both the cause and the effects of this major national development. First, our team that's been camped out at BTL's headquarters at the Esquivel Telecom Center fills us in on what's been happening there all day.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
BTL employees really never went in to work today. From just after 8:00 this morning they gathered outside, milling around the yard and talking in loose groups. They say they are frustrated and have just plain had enough of the back and forth over who owns and will own their company. They want in and they want it now.
It's a tough problem and at 9:00 the PUC's Dr. Gilly Canton came for a meeting and when he left an hour later he told us there were no easy solutions.
Dr. Gilbert Canton, Public Utilities Commission
"We're very concerned that an essential service, in terms of people are out there that might need medical assistance, and those type of things bother us. So we're trying to see what we can work out and see how we can get this thing resolved and get this system back up."
Jules Vasquez,
However you can also accept as regulator that the Prime Minister has given an undertaking to Jeff Prosser in writing to basically hamstring the actions of the regulator in terms of what you can do with rates, floors, ceilings, and guaranteed rate of return. So you can understand that irrational things have been done at the Executive level which would provoke this sort of activity as regards the regulator and these people. In that light are you able to have a more sympathetic interpretation of these actions?
Dr. Gilbert Canton,
"Well from way back when this issue was being discussed with you Jules we stood by the position that the existing legislation, regulatory framework, does not allow for those things that were being said to be included in those agreements."
About half hour after Canton left, Opposition Leader and informal legal advisor to the Communication Workers Union dean barrow arrived. He was met by union leaders and they went for a private meeting at the back of the building. After that meeting which took about half an hour to forty minutes, Barrow met with the press.
Dean Barrow, Opposition Leader
"I know they've said to you that there's some concern because names were being gathered and there is some fear perhaps that some sort of police action might be taken against people whose name have been collected and it was just on that point of view that I was asked to come and give some legal advice."
Jules Vasquez,
As a national leader what would you wish for in this situation? Obviously we are without national phone service, its crippling the country, as a national leader what would you wish at this point?
Dean Barrow,
"For a solution clearly. The employees are saying that they need to be certain that the assurances as to Belizeanization would be fulfilled. That seems squarely straightforward."
Jules Vasquez,
As you understand it, what is the position as regards essential services and the fact that this may be interpreted as a strike or industrial action of some sort?
Dean Barrow,
"I've been assured that there are some technical problems that they are calling Siemens and all the overseas people to try and assist with that."
And while Barrow played cagey on the cause of the shutdown, as a politician he could afford to. The man who couldn't was CEO Gaspar Aguilar. He discussed the company's plight.
Gaspar Aguilar, Chief Executive Officer BTL
"Operationally the management is doing its best to try and provide the service, quality service, to…"
Jules Vasquez,
But we have no service.
Gaspar Aguilar,
"I think we could appreciate that the employees are going through a very difficult time, I think the whole country is going through a difficult time, and I can sympathize with that but at the same time we're trying to do our best, deliver."
Jules Vasquez,
How will you solve this problem as CEO?
Gaspar Aguilar,
"Well I am talking with everybody that I can speak with and I am sure we will communicate with government also and see what we can do to provide the service as quickly as possible."
Jules Vasquez,
It appears to us to be a case of sabotage and it is only the people with knowledge of the switch that's able to turn off the switch, and I guess only them are able to turn it back on. Are you in a dialogue with these people who have knowledge of how to reactivate the switch?
Gaspar Aguilar,
"I am just talking to our people. I don't know whose really behind it or if its sabotage or not. Like I said we're going through difficult times and I'm trying my best to deliver the service."
Jules Vasquez,
Mr. Aguilar you've been here for almost 30 years. How does it make you feel to see a profitable, high successful company that you helped to build, in such a disarray? How does that make you feel and whose to blame?
Gaspar Aguilar,
"Well I don't think anybody's happy. I really can't blame anybody. Like I said we're trying our best to keep cool heads and make sure that we continue."
Two hours later after the lunch break the Commissioner of Police Gerald Westby and the Officer Commanding Eastern Division Crispin Jeffries came to the company compound to pick up Aguilar. Some of the employees thought he was being arrested when they saw them put him in the back of the car but instead Jeffries and Westby, two of the most senior policemen in Belize, were playing messenger for Home Affairs and Investment Minister Ralph Fonseca. They took him to Fonseca's house. After that 40 minute meeting, Aguilar returned and went into a meeting with Paul Perriot. Another hour later when that was finished, Perriot addressed the 150 or so employees and then broke for a smaller meeting with PSU representatives Dylan Reneau and Jackie Willoughby. From there, they went for private meetings with independent advisors including, again, Attorney Dean Barrow. After those meetings, Perriot spoke with us.
Paul Perriot, BCWU President
"Right Jules we deh dah the same position. We noh change fi we stance. The employees di call fi we remain where we are until we get what we want. Right now as you know 37% whe deh deh right now, we di demand that be handed over to us."
Jules Vasquez,
So you all want an undertaking, a memorandum of understanding, or some letter of intent, some statement from the Government of Belize stating that you all are entitled to the 37%?
Paul Perriot,
"That they would hand over 37% to us yes."
Jules Vasquez,
Have you received any indication from government if they will accept this?
Paul Perriot,
"No we haven't actually met with government yet. We just di basically set up dah meeting right now."
Alfonso Noble,
How will you all pay for this?
Paul Perriot,
"Well we wah put that inna fi deh hands fi mek the agreement or di arrangements as to how to pay for it or we look at it together at the end of the day but initially we need to have the 37% there before we even start to talk about how we wah pay for it; the payment could be arranged."
Jules Vasquez,
So Paul you all will not cooperate in helping to restore the phone service until your demands are met. Is that you're saying?
Paul Perriot,
"Well we wah cooperate as soon as we get what we want. I think if we get what we want and it could happen right now and fi go back right now into the negotiating room and we get that then we could look at are the problems the system di go through right now and figure out how we wah get it back together."
Jules Vasquez,
Finally Paul is there any thing you want to say those tens of thousands of phone users out there who well I guess some are in support some feel that you all should restore it. What would you like to tell them?
Paul Perriot,
"Well I just want to continue ask for their support. We started with that and I think the general public was of the opinion that something needed to get done with BTL and I think that at the end of the day we want to be in a position that we can give better service, no really better 'cause BTL di give good service right now, but better rates to the general public and I think that if we are in control or if we are in a position of control within BTL we can offer them that and at the end of the day that is what we want. So we hope then they support us in whatever endeavor we are on right now. At the end of the day it will benefit not only we as employees but Belizeans on a whole."
Joining us in studio now is Jules Vasquez who's been following up the BTL end of the story all day. Jules, how far away are we from a resolution?
Jules Vasquez,
Indira well as you said I was there all day and the situation that right now Alfonso Noble and Keith Swift are there and the latest report from them, of course not via telephone because there is no phone, but via a running messenger is that the workers remain there on standby because they have a sense that something can go very wrong if they leave the fort. So the majority of the workers who are associated with the Esquivel Telecom Center remain there on standby. We know that shortly that after 5 we again saw Dr. Canton from the PUC again with Mr. Westby going in there. So you have to look at it from the perspective of the government, it's a full blown national crisis. Belize all communication is dead, the country is in a crippled state, we are cutoff from the rest of the world so the government has to solve it as a matter of complete expediency, urgency, and imminence. They are in a bind and this is where BTL wanted them and as BTL said in that interview, the situation is that they want 37%. They want the 37% that government holds and what they want is an MOU, an undertaking of sort, that they can have. So how can they get this? Well right now Ralph Fonseca Minister of Investment and Home Affairs, as I understand, has been leading the conversation and that dialogue, as I understand it, has happening through Gaspar Aguilar the CEO who you saw there. So their position is that they want to meet with Said Musa the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister is on tour right now. The entire Cabinet is actually in Punta Gorda right now on a tour which is engineered as a political boon for them because in P.G. the distractions in their mind of the media is not as apparent. So they are there on a political upliftment tour. That's where Said is and they want to meet with Said. They had indicated earlier that they were prepared to go there to meet with Said and I don't know if they could go there now. So what we are looking at right now is that they want a firm written undertaking from the GOB, they want it from the Prime Minister of Belize, the Prime Minister of Belize is 100 miles away in Punta Gorda, and there's no way of reaching him right now. So I guess the phone service will continue to be off unless Ralph Fonseca can come through with something and again we're not clear if he himself has gone to P.G. as he was scheduled to.
We've heard talks today that the BDF is being commissioned to come in. Is there any truth to that and is that at this point even necessary?
Jules Vasquez,
Well actually that is a rumor and we cannot get any confirmation, we can't really reach anyone. But the situation is that it's a national emergency and in the case of a national emergency, the military has to be brought in to run whether it be Customs, Immigration, or the Water Company. They have to be brought in as the stabilizing force so that has to be if the government is seeing this, as it should, as a thorough going national crisis, that has to be very much at the top of their agenda. But the BDF, I don't think, are able to open the switch which will make the phone system work again and that is the bottom line, they need BTL's technical experts. They have been trying to get the names and addresses of all the technical people which has a sort of sinister implication but its also real because I guess they need to appeal independently to these people if they ever leave the compound to try and open these switches but the BDF matter is complicated because BTL is very much a private company and its not like it once was where the government is able to go in and dictate, although the government holds 37% it does not control the board of directors. So there's that complication of the formalities of a private company so that BDF thing is certainly on the agenda but it's not immediately at hand.
Should be shocked by what's taking place today and how did it come to this?
Jules Vasquez,
I guess after what we heard on the news two night ago from Paul Perriot and Dale Trujeque we shouldn't be shocked. But we got here, the straw, was Dean Boyce. Dean Boyce, Michael Ashcroft's former CEO and Chairman, went into BTL on Monday and right there everybody said well same thing happened again in terms of Ashcroft's hand was no longer invisible and everybody felt a sense of utter frustration that it would just revert to the strong handed policy of Michael Ashcroft. So that's what they came her eon Wednesday to warn us and that warning was for the government but the government caught perhaps up in its own realities, political realities, and they are hemorrhaging in terms of the Miami Court and they didn't heed it so they have to listen now. The government has this immediate crisis on hand and then they have the crisis on Monday where they are supposed to have a Board meeting according to the Miami Judge, a deadlock board 4 4, and the contempt is increasing everyday. Today is another US$50,000 and its now US$850,000 and by Monday it will be $1 million when they have the board meeting. Will they have that board meeting with the 4 4. The indication to us, the intelligence is, under the advice of Michael Ashcroft, who is guiding government's strategy vis a vie BTL in its confrontation with Jeff Prosser, indications are they are not going to have that meeting as the Miami Judge ordered. Indications are the B directors will not attend and if they do not have the quorum of B directors they cannot have the meeting. So indications, this is not confirmed, are that that meeting will go ahead which exacerbates that situation. So the government has multiple crises at hand right now.
Is it a practical request by the BTL staffers to want the 37%? They have said that they do not have the cash?
Jules Vasquez,
Well Paul Perriot said in the interview they believe they have access to its hard to find 37% would be at Ashcroft price at least $34 million or upwards of $30 million. Where would you find that kind of money? Obviously there is that money in the world. Would they be able to access it and would they be not locked by people like Jeff Prosser and Michael Ashcroft. So Paul feels they can access it. Sunrise feels they can access it through First Caribbean. These are not people who are known as international financiers so until they have the money you have to assume they don't have the money and that is really where its at right now.
So what are we looking at this point? How do you predict that this will all play out?
Jules Vasquez,
Well first of all I think we overlooked one thing, that in all this Speednet is a complicating factor because provoked many of the BTL employees, what they have been aware of, is that they believe Speednet has, because its financed by the Belize Bank, has the direct influence of Michael Ashcroft and so Michael Ashcroft's telecom specialist is Dean Boyce and what angers them, and I guess I missed this earlier, is that Dean Boyce is in BTL doing some type of informal audit, they believe, and then on the other hand he is also involved in Speednet through the Belize Bank's finance. So there is this cozy relationship between BTKL and Speednet's system is down right now because that was taken off at 8 because Speednet is housed in BTL's switching center. That was the agreement worked by Boyce with Speednet one month before Prosser took over and that was again an Ashcroft strategy to ensure that he remained in control of at least one telecommunications company and now he is almost in control of both of them which makes you wonder about the meaning of the words monopoly and competition. But so Speednet is down, and we don't know who killed it, and it's in the BTL switching center. So Speednet is down.
So what are we looking at?
Jules Vasquez,
I guess they shall not be moved. You can't say nothing more than that. They have made it clear that they are firm and hard and they shall not be seduced by any simple strategies. They will wait for that undertaking that they want 37%. They want the government to say we'll give you, we'll sell you, whatever because they figure if you could have given Prosser for no money, well you could we for no money and the fact is that while it may sound impractical, or on some levels irrational, what the government has done has been completely and thoroughly throughout impractical, irrational, and duplicitous so what they are saying is if you could that for a foreigner, well do it for us who live here and run the company and that's all they are asking for.