And while the PM had would take no more questions, there are many more tonight. One hour after that press encounter, and two hours after the PUC Amendment Bill was passed in the House, Jeffrey Prosser's Washington Attorneys issued a fiery press release.
The release outlines ICC's aggressive 12 point course of retaliation against government for moving on the special share. They say they will first ask the OAS to condemn Belize's actions; then they will petition the U.S. Treasury to freeze all of Belize's assets in the U.S.; then they will explore the possibility of suspending visas of Belizean government officials who support the legislation; they will petition the U.S. Department of Commerce to issue an investment advisory for Belize, and issue a petition for the revoking Belize's benefits under the Caribbean Basin Initiative.
These are among other retaliatory plans that will see ICC asking international funding agencies like the World Bank and the U.S.'s Export Import Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to refuse financing to Belize. It reads like Captain Evil's doomsday campaign "to-do" list, and this afternoon at a UDP press conference Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow commented on the ICC agenda.
Dean Barrow, Opposition Leader
"I want to make clear that the UDP does not in anyway support Jeffrey Prosser. We in the UDP are very conscious of the international implications of what it is that the government has done this morning and the release from Jeff Prosser signals quite lucidly what those implications are.
What has happened is that the government has passed a law that is designed to expropriate the property of Mr. Prosser who is after all a United States investor in this country. The Act that the government passed this morning is a measure that is designed to expropriate what our court has certified is the legitimate property of Mr. Prosser.
This golden share carries with all sorts of rights and our government is saying these rights which attach share which is owned as part of the whole BTL company scenario, these rights can be exterminated, can be extirpated, in one fell swoop by the Belizean government acting through the legislature of this country. The implications are huge. Apart from the signals this legislation sends the international business community, with respect to the ownership of the special share itself there is clearly going to be an immediate legal challenge because remember Jeff Prosser turned around and pledged that Special Share as collateral to the Royal Merchant Bank of Trinidad and Tobago which advanced US$25 million with respect to the Intelco debt which the government of Belize had caused us to incur. So Prosser has his vested right but so does RBTT because they hold the Special Share on assignment from Prosser as collateral, as pledge, for the US$25 million advance that they in fact made available to Prosser in the context of the Intelco transaction. There will be immediate challenges to the legislation. In my view those challenges have to succeed but that apart, my understanding is that when a government acts in this way against a United States citizen, there are automatic measures that will kick in. Call them reprisals if you like, use what name you want to call them, there is going to be a hell of a price to pay.
I imagine that both ICC/Prosser and in fact RBTT will immediately launch a challenge here in our courts and that is without prejudice to what's going to happen in terms of the political action that they are taking vis a vie the U.S. congress. I don't what's going to happen, RBTT is a Trinidad company. I believe even here in CARICOM there is going to be hell to pay. I don't see Prime Minister Manning sitting idly by while RBTT is at risk for US$25 million. So this ants nest, and that's putting it mildly, that the government as stirred up will come back to haunt us in multiple ways. At the very least all sorts of damages will be done. One can only imagine the fit Ungaro Benegas is going to throw the moment she gets sight of this legislation. It is absolutely intolerable, it really is a piece of madness."
Later on in the news we'll have more on the new BTL developments, including comment from the Leader of the Opposition on whether he will countenance a Michael Ashcroft guaranteed rate of return.
