Is Belize Able to Make Super Bond Payment?

John Briceño

Also in response to the IMF visit, the Prime Minister addressed concerns about Belize’s ability to make the super bond payment due in a few weeks. He appeared on Open Your Eyes on Thursday.

Marleni Cuellar, Host, Open Your Eyes

“There’s a payment due in a few months, in May. And clearly from all you’ve outlined, we most likely will not be able to make that payment. Is that what you’re saying?”

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Yes.”

Marleni Cuellar

“So what’s the status of the renegotiation?”

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I don’t think we’ve started the actual negotiations formally, but we have been sending out signals and so to the bondholders. There is absolutely no way that we can continue carrying that burden of over five hundred million U.S. dollars and the only way we can get back to sustainability is asking for bondholders to take a haircut and we are trying to get as a big of a haircut as we possibly can. The debt recovery team is just a team of different technicians and myself as well as with Ministers Courtenay and Coye. And so we are the ones that are working on putting all of these plans together.”

Marleni Cuellar

“Are you utilizing any of the past members of the recovery team; the past P.U.P. representative, the ambassador for Economic Affairs, Mark Espat? Is he involved?’

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Mark Espat is involved, but he is involved through the CITI Group. The CITI Group is the group that leads the negotiations. And so they are the ones that will have started that negotiations. We are not paying a cent to anybody as we speak and it will be based on performance and the amount of the haircut that we can get.”