Portico Enterprises Denounces Leader of the Opposition’s Comments

Portico Enterprises Limited has issued a press release that has, in essence, called out the Leader of the Opposition for spreading mistruths. The release also clarifies several points reported in the media over the past week since the Definitive Agreement was leaked. Perhaps the most crucial clarification is the part where Portico says they were not aware that Erwin Contreras had not gotten the green light from Cabinet. The release on this point, states, quote, “It is noteworthy that Erwin Contreras executed the Definitive Agreement for Harvest Caye on behalf of the Government of Belize. Therefore his capacity to sign and execute such document on behalf of the Government was unquestionable.” End of quote. With regard to this last statement, it is to be noted, that the media is not in a position to verify this, as the agreement for Harvest Caye has not been made public. In the introduction of the 3-page document, Portico notes that it is regrettable that the Leader of the Opposition’s request to the Ombudsman is rife with mendacious, frivolous, and defamatory statements. The company stated with certainty, that the opposition leader’s complaint has no foundation in fact nor legal merit, and since Shyne Barrow chooses to use this incident for a malicious attack against the Prime Minister and Portico’s corporate image, they now find it necessary to speak up on the situation. In relation to the clarifications made to media reports, Portico states that the more than one thousand acres of land acquired for the Port of Magical was no gotten from Hisam Diab. It added that none of the beneficial owners of Portico are related to the Prime Minister nor any of his affiliated companies, and that the only intended entities which are expected to have some equity in the future are Boskalis and Royal Caribbean Group. The release goes on to state, quote, “Oddly enough we note that in trying to impugn Erwin Contreras and the Definitive Agreement, the LOO has blatantly misled the public by stating that the Definitive Agreement was signed after Parliament was dissolved. The Definitive Agreement was executed by Mr. Erwin Contreras on the first day of October 2020 and Parliament was dissolved on the 6th day of October, 2020. In closing, Portico Enterprises indicated that the Port of Magical will not only provide some five thousand jobs, but it will have the larger cruise ships docking at its facility three times weekly with more than two thousand passengers which would translate to better economic days for Belize.