Was There a Fallout Between PM Briceño and Chris Coye?
Christopher Coye
Christopher Coye, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, also returned to Belize this afternoon, along with Prime Minister John Briceño. He was more receptive to the media and the questions on the Definitive Agreement. Minister Coye was asked about reports suggesting that he was the one who tabled the controversial contract in Cabinet and that he and the Prime Minister had a falling-out as a result. Here is how that conversation played out.
Reporter
“We are being told that you guys are not even talking at this point.”
Christopher Coye, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance
“I don’t know who is telling you that.”
Reporter
“We are also being told that you are the one, who took the Definitive Agreement to Cabinet sir, is that so?”
Christopher Coye
“I don’t discuss Cabinet matters.”
Reporter
“Sir but this is a public matter.”
Christopher Coye
“And we have signed an oath of confidentiality when it comes to Cabinet matters.”
Reporter
“We are told you actually sent some text to the Minister of Tourism and that was what was to be consultations. That is not meaningful consultation.”
Christopher Coye
“We have our means of conversation as far as dealing with Cabinet matters and I think that’s very informal. In many ways we have conversation by phone. WE have conversation by text and email. So there is nothing unusual about that.”
Reporter
“I think there is an approach on the media as far as what is the value of this agreement, this Definitive Agreement, but at the substance of it this is an agreement that was signed by the UDP administration under the honorable former Minister Contreras.”
Christopher Coye
“But when the Prime Minister said it was binding, things changed. In walking back the economic terms of the Contreras is the PUP administration accepting that it is incumbent upon you to deal with Portico and Royal Caribbean?”
Reporter
“I think that all depends on legal advice, the legal advice that the government procures and ti is only on the basis of that advice that the government acts.”
