Cordel Says Port of Magical Belize is Big Money Talks

Cordel Hyde

Despite all the controversy surrounding the Port of Magical Belize, it would seems as though the Briceño administration is still prepared to do business with Portico and its investors.  According to Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde, major players are involved in the proposed development and talk of big money is in the air.

Reporter

“But it seems that you guys are willing to work with Portico even after they went and presented this fraudulent Definitive Agreement to Royal Caribbean and now when we ask the prime minister about the seabed issue, he said it’s likely because the fact is that we need ports in Belize District.  So how is it that you continue to maintain that relationship with Portico after everything that has been done?”

Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources

“Well I don’t know about maintaining a relationship with them, I don’t know that we really had a relationship with them.  I think, ultimately this is a big project, it’s more than just Portico, there are international players here, big international players, big money talking, lots of fanciful talk.  I’ve always kinda treated it as some pie in the sky kind of thing because, like for the longest, I didn’t see how it would reach any kind of completion or fruition.  So it’s not just Portico, it’s other players and we have a responsibility back then to look at it at the Cabinet level to determine how exactly we will proceed, if we will proceed at all.  We sent a couple of our colleagues on an errand to try to ensure that we get the best possible product that would acceptable to Belizeans moving forward.  It may be that we are not able to settle on that.  It may be that whatever we come up with, whatever we think at Cabinet is acceptable to the Belizean, it may not be, and if it is not then it’s not our job to ram things down the throat of the Belizean people.”