FECTAB Made Peace With PM

Last week, FECTAB held a memorable press conference, lathering Norwegian Cruise Line and its proposed project for Harvest Caye in Southern Belize. The raised so much hell that, the Prime Minister, who famously does not watch the news or read the papers, did get wind of their fulminations. So, he did the unexpected thing; he called FECTAB President Tom Greenwood and invited them to a meeting. That was held on Wednesday and today we caught up with the trio in Belize City to talk about what came out of the meeting. They were surprisingly upbeat about the undertakings given to them by the Prime Minister:�

Tom Greenwood - President, FECTAB
"It was a brilliant move on the part of the Prime Minister to at last give us a little respect, that is what we asked for - he gave us maximum respect because he asked our opinion, he argued with us, he talked with us - he tried to convince us on some things, we convinced him on a lot of things - it went extremely well."


David Almendarez - FECTAB
"The first thing he promised us is that if the project is done down south, it will go through a full EIA assessment, he also assured us it's not a done deal, it has to meet environmental compliance."


Yohnny Rosado - FECTAB
"If the Prime Minister assures it's not a done deal, there's going to be some consultations and so we are with the people from Placencia. If the majority, democratically, wants the cruise ship - then we're going to be with the people - if the majority of the people in Placencia and in the south don't want the cruise ship then FECTAB is going to be with them all the way. So our government has that point blank that we are with the people and the government is with the people so hopefully the outcome is for the best for the entire country of Belize. I was honored to meet with the Prime Minister one to one and get that malicious thing in my head about the government that you just want to get to the top and not at the bottom but he assured us that we are just human beings."

Jules Vasquez
"One of the central concerns coming out of your press conference as I recall was the apparent likelihood of reduce turnings because if you have a berthing facility in the south and a tendering facility in the east then you may end up choosing that and we would lose ship mass. Where do we go with that?"

David Almendarez
"We spoke to the Prime Minister concerning that and he has assured us that if that project should go ahead, they will sign a memorandum of understanding which states that no ship that scheduled to come to Belize will be diverted - I mean a contractual agreement, a binding agreement. The Prime Minster gave us his word that if that thing should happen down south that no ship can be diverted to that area and no other cruise line will be allowed to use that particular port. He has given us that that will be a part of the MOU, that will be the contract that Norwegian will need to sign."

Tom Greenwood
"We told him that Colin Murphy said in a release to the Miami Herald and I quote 'Once the new facility is finished, ships will be diverted from Belize City'. He said Colin Murphy can say anything he wants, in the contractual agreement - no ships calling on the Belize City port will be diverted down south. However, if they feel like visiting the south on a second day - meaning come in one day and the next day you go down south - then we have no problems with that."

Yohnny Rosado
"He gave his okay and his support but the people in Placencia and all the MOU has to be in concordance because he assured us that he will not be like previous governments bypassing here, there and everywhere. So we like that about him, he literally out the fire on FECTAB but we will still keep it smoking until we see the results at the end of the day. We want them to come with the intentions to do business with the country that they're coming in and not just trying to take all the business for themselves."

Tom Greenwood
"What I saw in the MOU was an effort - Prime Minster waved it in our faces and said that he has taken it over - he put in there basic security for the people in the south who are going to be the tour operators and tour guides and providers at every level and this is what FECTAB tried to say. What we want to ensure and David was real instrumental there - is that we don't just become cooks and bottle washers, we must become owners and not just employees."

And as tour operation owners themselves, FECTAB has long been complaining about the road into the Nohoch Chen site, also known as Caves Branch. It's 6 miles of the worst road you can find - and every day when cruise chips visits hundreds of tourists pass over it. It's long been left unattended, but, apparently, not anymore:..

Tom Greenwood
"Thing is we've been trying to get someone to do something about that - the Prime Minister picked up his telephone and spoke to the people's concerned, won't mention names, but they were people from Ministry of Works and he said 'look get out there, get an assessment, tell me what it is, I'll give you the money - fix that road'. So it was a directive from him - so why does the Prime Minster of Belize have to get in at the ground level there. That's asking the general to go and load the machine gun for them down there - people should be doing their jobs and they're not and we've been screaming and then they call us trouble makers but why? Vehicles break down, break their wheels off - the guests are complaining morning, noon and night - that's not the way it works so we thank the Prime Minister for that - that road is going to be repaired."

Yohnny Rosado
"NICH and BTB have not called us for any meeting and that's why Tom is saying why does the Prime Minister have to do the job of BTB and NICH to do their job. Ultimately that's one of the thing the leader of a country should do, fix everything from bottom to top."

And one more bee in FECTAB's bonnet is the Crystal Cave. That is part of the caves Branch attraction but when it floods, the regular tour guides can't access it. They say only Chukka can. They put that housekeeping issue to the PM, and, apparently, he had a fix for that too!

Tom Greenwood
"A single tour operator has - because he accesses it through a private piece of land - has been able to do cave tubing when Belizeans are folding their arms and can't take bread home - and this is national patrimony. You can't go to Dunns Falls and Ocho Rios in Jamaica and say I want to do this special and keep everybody out of it - they would laugh you out of Jamaica - I get the feeling the way Jamaica is they more than would laugh you out of it. So, the Prime Minister said - that he can't promise us directly because it encroaches in someone else's domain and he got on the telephone and he spoke to the relevant people and one very important person as CEO and he said 'yes I agree with the guides'. When the caves are closed through flooding, they should be closed to everyone - not just everyone except this single person so we're getting some action on that. Taking bread and butter home - that's our job, they told us to go ahead and do it, they support us and now we're getting tremendous support directly from the Prime Minister of Belize - this is marvelous!"

Of note is that they told us that a new MOU with Norwegian is in the works.

Channel 7