In the political fog created last month by the Municipal Elections and the National Budget presentation in Parliament, inadequate scrutiny has been rendered to the March 11 2009 ruling by Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh granting the application by the Rt. Hon. Said Musa for a judicial review of a Magistrate’s decision to commit Mr. Musa to trial in the Supreme Court for theft. Consent to a judicial review clears the way for Mr. Musa’s attorneys to argue that the Magistrate’s decision had no basis in law.

This case involves $20 million gifted by Venezuela to Belize. The charge against Mr. Musa is that the decision to use these funds to pay down a debt to the Belize Bank amounted to theft, even though the government has been refunded the entire sum by the Bank. In fact, Prime Minister Barrow announced in July of last year a housing construction and repair program financed with the very same Venezuelan monies.

“Have you not seen the birds of the field teach their young to fly? Yet why do you teach your young ones to drag shackles and chains? Have you not seen how the flowers of the valley store their seeds in the sun-warmed earth? Yet do you deliver up your children to the darkness and the cold.” SPIRITS REBELLIOUS by Kahlil Gibran

“But let me say right at the start that we will bring the Belizean nation out of this global crisis with minimum discomfort.” PM Dean Barrow, March 6, 2009, House of Representatives

“…Belize is vulnerable to global developments, as the economy is likely to be affected by declining tourism receipts and remittances, as well as lower FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows, and that high external debt and relatively low external reserves limit the space for counter-cyclical policies. Overall, the government budget is increasingly dependent on volatile revenue sources (grants and oil) and external borrowing…” IMF Statement on Belize, March 26, 2009