A tale of 2 Telemedia Boards to be heard in Court

The dust has not settled at Belize Telemedia Limited. There are two boards, two C.E.O.s, and two Chairmen since last week’s ruling by the Court of Appeal that has triggered even more legal challenges for the government. The Prime Minister is now going to the House and Senate on Monday to re-nationalize the company. But today relying on Friday’s decision of the Court of Appeal which declared the 2009 nationalization of Telemedia to be unconstitutional, a new case was filed in court. Belize Telemedia Limited, acting on the instructions of its old Board is suing the current Board of directors personally for possession of Telemedia. According to what we have been able to understand, the effect of the Court of Appeal’s decision is that the authority of the government directors is null and void, and therefore they have no legal basis for occupying or controlling Telemedia. The case sues them for possession of Telemedia and for all intents and purposes they are regarded as trespassers. The current directors are Nestor Vasquez, Dr. Carla Barnett, Sir Manuel Esquivel, Paul Jones, George Lovell, Ariel Mitchell, Ambrose Tillett, Audrey Wallace and Karen Bevans. In addition to possession of the Telemedia property, there is a claim against these individuals for damages. And still on the issue, our checks reveal that there has been no response from the Court of Appeal to the request for an emergency hearing by Dean Boyce, the Executive Chairman.