First, it was the tourism village, and now it’s the Port Authority. On Tuesday, the Belize Port Authority will go before Justice John Muria asking for a stay of the Chief Justice’s judgement which ordered that the walls must come down. He did that well over a month ago, and yes, tonight, the walls are still up.
In an affidavit before the court, Ports Commissioner Lloyd Jones argues that the Chief Justice’s order cannot be enforced without making provision for the ISPS standards that Fort Street is compelled to maintain. Looks to us like the Ports Commissioner is putting himself above the Chief Justice – and that’s just how it looks to the managers of Brown Sugar who say they have complied with security regulations Jones outlined, but to no avail.
Christian Riverol, Manager – Brown Sugar
“He is saying that we haven’t done work to become compliant and I disagree with that 100%. It was agreed in the meeting that we needed to do five things to become compliant or to make the walls come down and there is no decertification. One is to raise our North Front Street entrance higher which we have done, it is now 8 feet high. Second is to raise our chain link fence on Angel Lane, that is eight feet high with razor wire. Third was to put razor wire on our Angel Lane cement fence which we have done and you can take pictures of that. Fourth was to declare that we were willing to use Fort Point Security which we have declared we will use them secure our property. Five was to put a security hut in the entrance on North Front Street to allow manual searches for guests wanting to come through our North Front Street entrance.
We have done all these things that were agreed to in the meeting by him. I have called him on several times to come and see the work we have done and he has not come. I sent him a letter saying to come and see what we have done. So the proof is there, come and see the work we have done to become compliant. It makes me wonder, I mean the Chief Justice, he is very high, he is the Chief Justice of our country and they are going against his order.”
When the application for a stay of the judgement foes before him on Tuesday, Justice Muria will be acting as an Appeals Court judge, since the sitting Judge Manuel Sosa has recused himself from the case.
