Photo: PM John Briceño rips up copy of Portico Definitive Agreement
PM tears up copy of Portico Definitive Agreement
BELMOPAN, Mon. June 18, 2023
Just 27 minutes into the House of Representatives meeting held on Friday, June 16, the Speaker of the House suspended the sitting due to a contentious exchange that ensued when Prime Minister John Briceño said he was setting the record straight on the Portico Definitive Agreement (DA) signed by UDP Minister Erwin Contreras. Briceño revealed that there was an e-mail from June 1, 2020, in which David Morales of Morales Peyrefitte LLP attached a draft of the Portico Definitive Agreement that was sent to then Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte. The latter has repeatedly insisted that he had not seen the Definitive Agreement until it was leaked to him on May 25 this year. Briceño alleged that Peyrefitte made money from the deal through his law firm, as partners share profits. After repeated interjections by Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Moses “Shyne” Barrow, who rebutted the Prime Minister’s suggestions by noting that Peyrefitte had divested himself from the Morales Peyrefitte law firm when he became a parliamentarian, things deteriorated into a nasty back-and-forth. Barrow was told to shut up, and he hurled the same directive across the aisle. It escalated to the threat of a fight when one PUP parliamentarian stated, “meet me outside.” The language got even nastier during the 5-minute recess.
Before the outbursts, the Prime Minister rejected Barrow’s retort that it was a rogue minister alone who had been involved in the Portico deal. Briceño asserted, “What the Leader of the Opposition does not want to accept is that it was a rogue government before the elections … and now he comes here to try to say that our Government is doing something illegal when it was a UDP Definitive Agreement.”
When Amandala reached out to Peyrefitte on Friday, he said the purported revelation was not news because he has publicly stated that he was “approached to sign a definitive agreement”. In regard to his response when he was approached, Peyrefitte went on to claim, “I said NO. I informed them that I am not authorized to sign a DA unless Cabinet instructs me to do so.” Peyrefitte added that he had been aware that a Portico DA was going around but he didn’t read nor sign any, as an Environmental Impact Assessment had not been approved yet, and that, furthermore, the document would have first had to have gone to the Chairperson of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Investments. When the e-mail was finally circulated after 7:00 on Friday evening, Peyrefitte said that the recipient’s e-mail was indeed that of the then chairperson of that committee, Hon. Tracy Panton. She told Amandala today, Monday, that “whether or not an email was sent with a proposed Definitive Agreement, it was not considered by BELTRAIDE, the Investment Unit of the Ministry or by myself. No Definitive Agreement was tabled to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Investments for discussion or consideration and no such Definitive Agreement was sent to Cabinet for approval.” She further shared that it simply had not reached that step in the process. Briceño has said that even though Contreras’ colleagues may not have known that he signed the agreement, they knew the terms that were being worked out.
Inside the National Assembly on Friday, PM Briceño also pointed to land transactions linked to the Port of Magical Belize site that were being processed on November 4, 2020. He called it all a package “because the Definitive Agreement is useless without land.” Briceño said that multiple parcels of crown land totalling 850 acres next to the project site were “signed over”. The lands, he said, were sold for $117,993. Briceño then revealed, “a few months later, guess who buy the land? Portico.” Briceño Administration officials have since circulated copies of the Minister’s Fiat in the name of multiple companies and individuals for land East of Northern Lagoon, Belize District.
Members of the Briceño Cabinet have been on the defensive about the Portico DA due to the fact that there is a Portico Cabinet white paper dated May 15, 2023 with supporting draft legislation for the port project. That document was leaked and shows that the Ministry of Finance was asking Cabinet to “approve the tabling of the proposed Bill … subject to the approval of the final form of the Bill by the Attorney General’s Ministry …
” When last approached by the media after the document was leaked, Briceño declined an interview, saying there was no progress to report. On Friday, the PM addressed the accusations that his Government embraced the DA in its original form. He stated, “Myself, me as the Prime Minister did the opposite. I instructed that this agreement be reviewed; I neva try hide it. And my Government, we engaged professional external legal counsel to advise on the validity of this agreement and its terms.” He then proceeded to symbolically tear apart a copy of the document which he proclaimed “was not approved by my Cabinet.” He went on to say, “I am telling you right now: this is good for nothing … because we are going to do what is right by Belize! … We will discuss with the key stakeholders including Royal Caribbean – one of the leading cruise lines in the world — as well as all legitimate partners, and with full transparency. Madam Speaker, we will do only what is good for the tourism industry and good for Belize. We will be fair and we will proceed only with the approval of the Cabinet and this Honorable House.” While he indicated that he could not reveal all that happened in Cabinet, the PM said, in regard to his actions once the discussion started, “I immediately said we are not going to proceed with this Definitive Agreement and everyone in Cabinet agreed. And now—talking about a rebellion? What on earth are you talking about?” Briceño went even further by stating, “This Definitive Agreement noh worth nothing to us. But it is my responsibility as Prime Minister – I don’t hide anything from my Cabinet … This is not a one-man show.”
Expanding on the question of whether the Portico Definitive Agreement is binding, Education Minister Francis Fonseca, speaking on behalf of Attorney General Magali Marin-Young, said it was the UDP who “developed, approved and signed the Definitive Agreement.” He then made reference to Contreras, saying that privately there had been consultation with the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Investments before he signed the DA. Fonseca further explained that the Office of the Attorney General does not make judicial pronouncements on the binding nature of an agreement, as that is a matter for the courts. He said the Government therefore sought advice from Senior Counsel Douglas Mendez “and has, at all times, acted in accordance with that professional legal advice. Mr. Mendez has advised that … Minister Contreras, as he then was, had the implied and ostensible authority to execute the definitive agreement. Now, that advice is an opinion; it is not a judicial pronouncement.” Fonseca emphasized that because the agreement represents a potential legal liability for the Government of Belize, the Ministry of Finance had a duty to take the matter to Cabinet for discussion and review, and they rejected it.
In an interview on the sidelines of the House meeting, the press finally got to question the Prime Minister on the leaked Definitive Agreement. On March 1st, the PM had said, “If the Definitive Agreement—and I’ve not seen it—was signed by the Minister responsible, then obviously it is going to be binding, because it’s the government of Belize that signed it.” On Friday, the PM said he saw the agreement “long afterward because other people deal with that stuff.” “And then, when it was time to come to Cabinet, I went through it quickly and I said, ‘this has to go to the Cabinet for decision to either accept or not to accept,’” he said. As for the request contained in the Cabinet confidential to “approve” the draft bill, the PM affirmed, “when you write a Cabinet paper, that’s what you do, asking the Cabinet if they want to accept it or not.” The PM confirmed that the AG’s Ministry did not prepare the draft legislation supporting the Portico agreement because her office is overwhelmed with work and many times they have had to seek the services of other attorneys to assist. The PM further clarified that because the ministries are aware of the heavy workload of the AG’s Ministry, they, on their own, seek that draft legislation be prepared.
The Prime Minister also confirmed that the Government is in discussions with the Royal Caribbean Group (RCG) as they, the Government, facilitate “a project that started before our time.” Briceño said that because it’s such a large project, RCG wants to ensure it has legislative approval.