And, for a very different political perspective, we spoke today with the Leader of the Opposition. While Barrow says that he supports the farmers in their negotiations, he believes that GOB was dragging its feet and took too long to resolve the situation:
Shyne Barrow, UDP Leader
"I don't know what has been accomplished. We need to be practical, all that has been done is not even a bandaid, a tape, a see -through tape, a transparent tape has been put on a gaping wound that has been gushing blood for the last three years."
"Again, the people, as you heard the chairman, Mr. Ortega, say explicitly that they voted for the PUP because they believed that the PUP would deliver them, would rescue them, and would finally solve the issues that they were facing."
"Mr. Ortega, the chairman of the BSCFA himself, said that he had no confidence in the prime minister, the prime minister was a waste of time, complete disappointment, because he promised he would do certain things within a hundred days of the PUP getting elected."
"It has now been three years and none of those things have happened. So again, the Belizean people, the UDP, the stakeholders, we are not kunumunu. There is no way that we can believe that three years you haven't done the inquiry, three years you have not done any analysis."
"I believe Mr. Hugh O' Brien, like him a lot, gentleman, quite competent, for three years nothing has happened, no analysis has been done, no conclusion has been made, no inquiry has been done, to be able to say, well, this is the government's position and this is what has to happen."
"For us to believe now, 60 days before an election, oh, just give us three months, that's to give them three months so that they could get past the municipal elections and then again go back to the gaping room, but by that time the sugar cane industry will continue to to bleed out and that's what we've seen."
"Every year before the crop is to be delivered we have this. So there is no long-term solution. This idea that the government will pay for the put fees and whatever costs that the BSCFA is saying they should not pay and that ASR should pay, which I agree with the BSCFA, that if anybody should pay, let the private sector pay in this instance."
"I always attempt to be fair and balanced but as I said, Belize first, the caneros first. So we don't want to make doing business so burdensome and onerous on any foreign entity but at the end of the day if it is between the caneros and the taxpayers of Belize paying and ASR paying, they need to pay."
