BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Oct. 28, 2021 –Today, the Senate ratified the Blue Bond for Conservation Agreement by passing the motion and loan bill consummating the buyout of the massive international debt known as the “Superbond”. Senator Eamon Courtenay then proceeded to pronounce the Superbond dead — laid to rest at a huge discount through an innovative financial instrument that is, in essence, novel to the world: TNC’s Blue Bond.

“This is the motion that authorizes the death of the Superbond and that empowers and authorizes the rising of the Blue Bonds,” Senator Courtenay stated.

He added, “It is the Minister of Finance of Belize, the Hon. John Briceño, who led his team to secure a 45% debt haircut.”

While Senator Courtenay praised his government and the leadership of Prime Minister John Briceño for achieving this indisputably historic feat, Senator Michael Peyrefitte asserted during the Senate meeting that the PUP is taking credit for the hard work of his former boss, former prime minister of Belize, Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, during his administration.

“It is only because I am in the Senate that I will only use one word — please, man, please. This restructuring happen despite the PUP. This restructuring was going to happen, Sir. This restructuring and exactly as it is, it is a UDP initiative. When we spoke to the TNC recently and our advisors and experts asked them blankly what is the difference between what you have here now and what we have reached to an understanding with you as the UDP in government, and there is no difference, Sir. So what are you all celebrating? What did you do except wake up on third base?” Senator Peyrefitte commented.

He stated that the foundation of this agreement was laid by the UDP over the duration of their administration and that The Nature Conservancy came to the table in the first place largely because of the environmental and marine conservation strides undertaken by the UDP.

He explained that this was never announced by his party publicly to avoid the prices of the bond being driven up by the holders before the agreement was struck.
“It could not have been discussed at that time, because in discussing it, knowing who was the person who the entity behind the purchasing of the bond, they asked us to keep it quiet, because they did not want to drive up the price of the bonds. This is the US government, this is the US DFC essentially, you know, when you peel away all the layers. This is it,” Senator Peyrefitte said.

Senator Osmany Salas welcomed the idea that this agreement was something that was initiated and executed across the two political parties. He noted, however, that the prospect of such an agreement had been floating in conversations between key entities since 2010 and also confirmed Senator Peyrefitte’s assertion that the negotiation started under the Barrow administration in July of 2019. (It is also worth noting that key members of the negotiating team which spearheaded the intricate negotiations actually have served both UDP and PUP administrations over the last decade.)

Belize will benefit from upwards of half a billion dollars in debt relief by means of the new Blue Bond. This will create a bit of breathing space for the country, which was on the precipice of financial ruin, according to some PUP officials. According to Senator Chris Coye, the buyback of the Superbond will move the debt-to-GDP needle back by just 12 percentage points, from 127% to 115%.

“While we have, by this Blue Bond, we have been able to reduce our debt by over 600 million dollars, that’s still, as Senator Collet mentioned, having inherited a debt of over 4 billion dollars, what is 600 million dollars? We still have a debt of roughly three and a half-billion dollars,” Senator Coye said.

He added, “We have gone through a process that will reduce our debt to GDP by roughly 12%, but as again, as Senator Collet highlighted, we were at 127%; that would put us at 115%. That still is not a sustainable position — what, to use a different analogy, we are in the midst of when we speak of having gone over the cliff; we haven’t crash-landed. I wouldn’t want to say that we have learned to fly, but we are certainly raising from the flames. “

At the end of the debate, Senator Courtenay referred to the account outlined by Senator Peyrefitte as an attempt to re-write history. Courtenay, for his part, said that the UDP had the opportunity to do a similar debt buyout and failed.

“The United Democratic Party government was given an opportunity to sell the Belize debt at a discount, create a trust fund of 90 to 100 million US dollars, and they failed. It is mercenary that 730 million Belizean dollars were paid and they were given an opportunity to fix that in 2014, and they failed. Yet, they come here with no shame and claim that they are heroes and that this is their baby. No such thing,” Senator Courtenay claimed.