And while that's the view from the streets, what's the view from the political sidelines?
Today, we asked the Leader of the Opposition for his thoughts on the revocation of Brad's Boledo license.
While Shyne Barrow has publicly criticized Brad's contract before - he didn't do that today. He said that he believes it's a bad look for Belize in the eyes of potential investors, since the government is prematurely pulling out of a legally binding agreement. And he's also worried that it will end up in a costly court battle. Here's what he told us today.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"In general, I'm very concerned as a future prime minister and as the leader of the opposition I'm very concerned for what this signals to the investors, to the investor community. Brad's Boledo has invested millions and millions of dollars into what we have as the Brad's Boledo entity over very many years and they have a binding legitimate contract, agreement, and regardless of, this is not personal opinions, this is not about who owns Brad's, just as a leader of this country, we as leaders have to do what is ethical, we have to do what is legal and so I am very concerned that the Briceno administration is headed down a path of litigation that will see the Belizean people pay obscene amounts of money because they have violated a legal contract."
Courtney Menzies:
"But the reason why the revocation is happening in the first place, as the prime minister explained is because Brad's wasn't doing its due diligence in the sense of reporting to the government, the proceeds, the sales, what they were making and they have been trying to speak with Brad's and meet with Brad's and trying to get them to get their ducks in a row, but Brad's has seemingly refused to follow the regulations of the agreement."
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"Well, again, that is the Briceno Administration's version, I can tell you that I can remember vividly before the Belizean people made the mistake of electing the PUP to office, them saying that would be one o the first things that they would do, they would cancel the boledo contract, they would take it back and making allegations as to who the owners of the boledo was and etcetera, etcetera, so they have followed through on exactly what they said they that they would do. [00:14:47.26] and my problem is just as leader, as prime minister, I want to ensure that investors regardless of who they are, whether they're PUP investors or UDP investors have confidence that they can spend their money in this country and that we will respect the laws in this country and where there are legal agreements, we will respect the agreement."
