Hulse Says Government Hasn’t Decided on Reaction
Godwin Hulse
Should government apologize internationally for openly backing a fraudulent endeavor which promoted the Blue Hole and other aspects of the World Heritage Site as the principal attraction for tourists? According to Hulse, much thought hasn’t been given to that notion, neither did government consider dismissing the proposed project altogether when the investors failed to produce the money.
Reporter
“Is it something that you all should have had the good sense to simply dismiss out of hand; these people weren’t serious. They didn’t have a title for the property to say, ‘see we own Sand Bore Caye.’”
Godwin Hulse, Member, Cabinet Subcommittee on Investment
“But, Jules, I don’t know what you mean by dismiss outta hand. We sent them, in a way, I would not say sent them packing, but we sent them come back to us when you have A, B, C and D. And they never came back with A, B, C, and D and that is where it languished.”
Reporter
“But at the same time they continued to use the Blue hole. They enlisted Ministers in the Cabinet – where you sit. They enlisted the Prime Minister’s wife to bolster this fraudulent cause?”
Godwin Hulse
“Well, I don’t know if they enlist. Hindsight is 20/20 vision and you can look back and say they enlisted. They certainly never enlisted me but the fact of the matter is that those were in the so called formative years of the project. But, Jules, you know these things happen and there is a lot of grandiose big time schemes running around with big money. We grow – we are a growing country. The Investment Committee is now at a stage where it understands this and know who to look at with a different lens. Following on them, or around the same time we had NCL, but NCL you know Norwegian exists so you know it is an entity you can work with. We also know we have heard of Leonardo Di Caprio – everybody see him – and he first called the thing Django – which everybody know from a famous movie. So you can know there is substance there. This Puerto Azul started off looking big. The guys flaunted people and they actually showcased people like John Travolta and other people which would give you the essence that this also is credible. But as I said, at the Investment Committee we simply said bring A, B, C, & D and A, B, C, D never came and so that is where it was for me.”
Reporter
“Sir, should the nation of Belize at this point send out some global red flag saying we don’t have anything to do with this, because Belize’s name and the Blue Hole in particular continues to be dragged into this because that was the hook?”
Godwin Hulse
“I don’t know that that would hurt; that would hurt to do that. I haven’t thought of it so far that we should send out some statement. But I would certainly in the next Investment Committee Meeting speak with the representative from the Tourist Board and the Minister and see whether they figure that some statement should be made.”
