George Lovell
If it is not feasible to halt the construction of the forward operating base on Hunting Caye, the Ministry has committed to ensuring that it does not happen in the future. But has it happened more than once in the past? Today, News Five was reliably informed that the very same Guatemalan company, BINARQ, not only constructed the Coast Guard’s forward operating base on Ambergris Caye, but remarkably, the military’s Joint Operations Centre on Price Barracks as well. Now, the Joint Operations Centre is a base used by the Police, B.D.F. and Coast Guard – it’s the country’s most sensitive intelligence and operations facility. But was it really built by Guatemalans? Today, we asked C.E.O. George Lovell, who has conceded that while the national security concern is valid, nobody in the ministry is really to blame.
Via Phone: Ret’s Col. George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security
“I was not around when these things were first planned and I don’t know what the process at the time; I am still in the process of finding out what had led to the lack of knowledge which obviously stem all the way up to the National Security Council and the ministry in the first part. And when I went through my discussion to get a good understand of the procedures that we have whenever the army core of engineer or these contracts, it is clear that there could have been an honest ignorance on the part of the ministry and all those other players in the ministry of national security.”
Mike Rudon
“Sir, News Five has been able to confirm that it wasn’t only the base at Hunting Caye. We have confirmed that this Guatemalan company also constructed the base on San Pedro and also constructed the Joint Operating Base…”
Via Phone: Ret’s Col. George Lovell
“No, they did not do the joint operating base. They did build the San Pedro F.O.B., but I was made to understand that the Joint Operation Center was built by a company from Costa Rica.”
Mike Rudon
“Would you be able to give us an idea of the mood of the Americans to these discussions because we have been trying to get comment from them officially, but you know how difficult that it…”
Via Phone: Ret’s Col. George Lovell
“They understand the current climate that5 we are in. And they are certainly now sensitive to the type of discussions that we are now engaged in. And I am quite certain that—without speaking out of place and without speaking on their behalf—that they would be able to sit down with us in the future before going firm and awarding that contract to at least find out if we certainly have any objections before doing so.”
News Five has sent repeated queries to the US Embassy asking for a response to PM Barrow calling that government insensitive…and also trying to confirm what other projects in Belize have been carried out by the Guatemalan company. We haven’t gotten a response, but we’re still hopeful.
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