Minister Espat Takes on Arguelles Brothers

Julius Espat

Before the elections on November eleventh, the People’s United Party disclosed details of fifteen contracts valued over one hundred million dollars to International Environments which is owned by brothers Daniel and Carlo Arguelles. In the list of contracts was the fourteen point nine million-dollar contract for the construction of a new Foreign Affairs Building in Belmopan. The Arguelles brothers argued that the contract encompasses professional fees and that the project is of first-world standards.  The Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Julius Espat says that the Arguelles brothers aren’t fooling anyone. 

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing

“I am an architect by profession. He can try to fool people out there. He can’t fool us. I mean first world meaning, what? That it does not apply to Belize and he is insulting all the other professionals that he is the only person in the entire country that knows how to build first world? Well anybody given a multi million dollars project or a billion dollars project can make first world happen but we have to contentious of the fact that we are not a first world country. You have to design your buildings so they are applicable and they reflect your culture. Have you seen that building? Does it reflect anything that has to do with Belize? The only thing that it is reflecting is that it was a fifteen million dollars contract worth seven million dollars at the highest. You can’t justify it any other way.  Just like they cannot justify a Range Rover being like a transformer type vehicle; it is arrogance at its highest.”