Puerto Azul, We Hardly Knew You!

The Government of Belize appears to be breathing a sigh of relief, as the fall of the Puerto Azul project for a grand resort project at the Northern Two and Sandbore Cayes in the Lighthouse Reef Atoll was exposed as a massive fraud and Ponzi scheme that never made it past an environmental impact assessment. While the photos of Minister of Tourism Manuel Heredia Junior and Minister of Investment Erwin Contreras are reminders of how much backing this project had, the Government takes comfort, according to the Prime Minister, that its five-point investment checklist defeated this and other fly-by-night investors wanting their pound of flesh from the Jewel.

Dean Barrow

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“I don’t know what you mean by promoting…”

Reporter

“In Cannes?”

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“Look it’s very unfortunate that these people fell through, but as I think our officials have indicated, while we are obliged to listen to anybody who comes with a project proposal and when on the faces of it they appear to be legit; these people fooled a very many of the good and the great. I don’t think you can apologize that in particular instances things will not turn out to be as they appeared at the start and I think that it is a merit in us that fairly early on, our officials realized that this was going nowhere. So it’s still a regrettable incident, but it’s, if not par for the course, not unexpected that as I said, of the hundreds of applications that come to this country, some will prove to be bogus.”