Mexican billionaire pays for damage to Belize’s reef

The Azteca, a yacht owned by Mexican Billionaire, Ricardo Salinas Pliego ran onto the reef on April seventh. Pliego was on holiday near San Pedro when the incident occurred. The Azteca’s captain, Villeras Eckart, claimed he dropped the anchor in order to avoid running aground. The damage sustained to the fragile coral ecosystem was twenty-five by forty-five meters. The damage was initially assessed to be eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars. But Salinas Pliego, who also owns the Azteca TV station, was determined to pay only half that amount. And the billionaire got his wish. A release from the Department of Environment today states that Salinas will make four payments of one hundred thousand U.S. dollars each. The first payment was made to D.O.E. on July fourth. In addition to the four hundred grand, “Fundacion Azteca”, an environmental arm of the Pliego empire, has agreed to promote Belize on TV Azteca and also give assistance to the country on the environment and forest conservation. While this is a good gesture coming from the billionaire, still an additional four hundred thousand U.S. dollars will not go to the country’s coffers; not to mention the irreparable damage to the reef.