Port of Belize Files Application to Block G.O.B. Payment to Stevedores
Today, the Port of Belize Limited filed an application for an injunction in the Supreme Court of Belize to restrain the Minister of Finance, Prime Minister John Briceño from making any payment to the Christian Workers Union from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. For context, on the third of February 2020, the Government of Belize agreed to make the payment of one million five hundred thousand dollars to the Christian Workers Union for any prejudices that may have been suffered stevedores as a result of the privatization of the Port of Belize in 2002. In the agreement, the Government of Belize agreed to make the payment on or before the twenty- eighth of February. Well, today the application filed names Port of Belize Limited as claimant one and former C.E.O. at the Port, Arturo Vasquez, as claimant two. They are asking the Supreme Court to declare the agreement illegal and unenforceable. The claimants argue that the Government of Belize entered into the agreement in the absence of a law enacted by the National Assembly authorizing the payment of any such sum out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The claimants are further asking the court to declare that the agreement represents an “irrational and arbitrary exercise of power in breach of the claimant’s right to equal protection of law”. Also named as defendants in the application are Public Utilities and Logistics Minister, Michel Chebat, the Attorney General, and the Christian Workers Union.