After the Senate meeting, we spoke with Senator Michael Peyrefitte outside the chambers. He discussed the fix that Superbond holders are in, and the four months grace that the government has asked for in making its payment which was due last month.
He explained that while there is nothing wrong with that, there's not much that can be done in that time that will help the government to make the payment.
Peyrefitte, who received the award in in 2016 when "Latin finance" recognised Belize for the re-negotiation of the Superbond at that time, also added that he offered to help the government, but was flat out rejected.
Still, he said that while the bondholders seem to be putting pressure on the government, such friction is only natural in a negotiation such as theirs.
Senator Michael Peyrefitte
"It's not unreasonable to ask for extension if you believe that you need the time, the question is what changes can you possibly see happen is such a short amount of time. Remember, when we defaulted on May 20th, it was kind of like a soft default, we have 20 days before an officials default but still your ratings begin to fall. When it's early like this and everybody, you're far apart and you're trying to feel out each other, this is new government compare to the last one, then you have a lot of tense moments between the bondholders and the government and so this will go on for a while I think. I think the prim minister had indicate din his budget speech that by may this process would be wrapped up. But I think he's a rookie in these matters and he couldn't appreciate what it take to restructure a bond. But I don't think its unreasonable to ask for an extension, if you need the time, ask for it, my question is what do you do in that time? Let me say this because people have been asking e about this, I have offered to help the government, I know a lot of players on the bondholders side, and on the other side, and I had offered to kind of be a bridge between the two sides so that I can familiarize with the players and the players with government and the government has flatly rejected that. So I just want the public to know and I hope you play this on your newscast that this current process that's going on right here, the UDP has not been asked to be a part of it."
"I think you have to understand in a negotiation, they have to make it seem as though they're taking some beating and they have to bring pressure on us to get the best possible deal. But they know that they want to get paid and they know they have to put us in a situation where we can enable ourselves to pay, so they can't come hard either, I think that's just part of the initial discussion and deliberations that that kind of talking has to happen. You could ask yourself, how is it that we are such serial defaulters but yet they still deal with our bonds, yet they still want to do business with the country, well that's just a part of it."
