His administration was rocked by a number of incidents in the last two years, and crippled by dispiriting times for the sugar industry on a whole. On Tuesday of this week, the Committee of Management decided they had had enough, and relieved Carlos Magaña, the Belize Cane Farmers Association’s first Chief Executive Officer, of his post.
The decision stunned Magaña, appointed in 2007, and to date he has yet to get an explanation for the termination of his contract, which was up for renewal this month, with immediate effect, he told us in an interview from his home in San Joaquin village, Corozal District, under rainy skies this afternoon.
But Magaña told us he has suspicions about why the Committee, chaired by Corozal’s Eric Eck, chose to send him on his way.
Magaña learned of his termination when his secretary called him at a meeting of the Sugar Industry Control Board (SICB) in Orange Walk Town. She asked him to “come immediately” to the Association’s offices on San Antonio Road, because there was a letter there he needed to read.
The letter said simply that his services were terminated effective immediately, and that his contract, which had expired at the end of June, would not be renewed, but it gave no reason for either. (The Labour Law says no such explanation is needed.)
According to Magaña, his first thought was to ask the secretary, who is present at all meetings of the Committee of Management, for the minutes of the meeting at which this decision had been taken. There was apparently a meeting held, but no minutes were recorded and no secretary was present, according to Magaña’s subsequent investigation.
Magaña told us he had an option to renew his contract upon its expiration, and negotiations had begun for renewal on Thursday, July 2, a week ago today. He had received assurances from Eck that the contract would be renewed, with no hiccups.
However, certain cane farmers apparently brought it to the attention of the Association that they objected to Magaña receiving hefty allowances for the rental of his house in San Joaquin and a medical allowance for himself and his family, and the Committee, with the exception of two members whom Magaña identified as Alfredo Ortega and Ismael Carrillo, agreed. Ortega and Carrillo had brought the matter to Magaña’s attention the previous day, and Magaña called Eck to schedule a discussion for the next day.
The Committee strongly recommended against the allowances, which had been in the previous contract, while Magaña argued for keeping them – but allowed that he could compromise on the matter. Contrary to reports in other media, Magaña said he had not walked out of this meeting.
Magaña presented a revised version of the contract to Association officials the next day, Friday, along with a document he called the “Administrative Transformation Process”, which he said contained proposals for immediately altering the basics of management within the Association, to more evenly distribute the burden among himself and the Committee.
Magaña admitted that it would not have been easy for the Association to agree to the addition, but that “if they had wanted me to continue, those would have been my conditions.” The proposals call for sweeping changes in the day-to-day management of the Association, with Magaña installed as head; he believed that they “could not have waited, because conditions in the Association needed to change for us to move forward.” The Association rejected the document.
On Monday, four members of the Committee, including Eck, traveled to Belmopan to meet with “political leaders” (Carrillo, who was not in agreement with the termination, was not among them). What transpired is not immediately clear, but Magaña believes the word came from “up high” to let him go, a decision he still “cannot understand” today, 48 hours later.
Magaña would only say that he believes elements in the Government have not forgiven him for the events of February 2, 2009, the climax of the 14-day cane farmers’ strike, in which protestor Atanacio Gutierrez was shot down by authorities on the entrance road to the BSI factory at Tower Hill during a day of protests highlighted by a day-long blockade of the Northern Highway at the Toll Bridge.
He also told us that he was shortly to “go public” with damning information on the activities of previous associations, as well as the investigation into the events of February 2.
Asked where this leaves the farmers he had worked for over the last 2 years, Magaña told us that he believes the membership of the Association would have “no confidence” in an administration that changes its mind as this one did. A few farmers have expressed their sympathies, he said.
Magaña said he has had no communication with Eck or any other member of the Committee since Tuesday. (Amandala has been equally unsuccessful trying to reach Eck for comment.)
Magaña plans to hold a press conference in Orange Walk Town addressing allegations concerning his management of the Association next Monday. The Association is scheduled to meet in San Roman at Escuela Mexico on Sunday, July 19.
Until then, Magaña is with his family and says he has no regrets about his time with the Belize Cane Farmers Association.