The Taiwan Connection

“Guatemala received no overt military aid from the U.S. Government because the Carter administration had suspended aid in 1977 over the Guatemalan government’s continued violation of its citizens’ human right; in fact, though, the U.S. continued to send military aid to Guatemala steadily throughout the period through third-party proxies, namely Israel and Taiwan.”
TERROR IN THE LAND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT by Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Oxford University Press, 2010

Belize’s diplomatic “blind spot” may well be the cozy relations enjoyed between our generous ally Taiwan and our covetous neighbor to the West, Guatemala. Oil, it has been suggested, lies at the heart of Guatemala’s baseless claim to Belize. And now, oil may also stand at the center of an emerging Taiwanese claim to the jewel’s coastal waters.

The Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage, an amalgam of 23 tourism and environmental organizations with aggregate membership that may well number in the thousands, recently demanded of the Barrow administration an immediate ban on offshore oil drilling. Precipitating this ultimatum was the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, where an estimated 100,000 barrels per day, the equivalent of 2,800 gallons per minute, are contaminating the ocean, killing wildlife, suffocating coral reefs and destroying fisheries and tourism. So far, Prime Minister Barrow has stubbornly refused to accede to the Coalition’s request. Why would the PM not consent to at least a temporary ban – a moratorium – on offshore drilling, which several countries including the US, have already instituted in the wake of the Gulf incident?

The answer to this blazing question may pivot on one word: Taiwan.

Recall that on May 19, 2008, the freshly-elected Barrow travelled to Taipei for the inauguration of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou. Even before his departure, Mr. Barrow announced that Taiwan would be “gifting” the Government of Belize $50m for so-called budget support. This $50m was Taiwan’s congratulatory gift to the new UDP administration, a reward justified by Belize’s membership to that exclusive though dwindling club of 23 nations that maintain diplomatic ties to Taiwan. Belize has since secured additional multi-million dollar loans from Taiwan.

A few months later, in September 2008, a report surfaced in the international press that Taiwan’s state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CPC) would be signing an agreement with the government of Belize granting CPC exclusive rights to explore some 1,800 square miles of Belizean offshore waters. In the report, a former Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize was quoted as saying that “Belize is the Kuwait of Central America.” This agreement was officially signed by DPM Gaspar Vega in January 2009.When the report of the concession to the Taiwanese surfaced here in Belize, PM Barrow had this to say: “The Taiwanese have been saying to us that they’re ready to go. Maybe what is happening is that the actual physical activity is about to commence but we’ve known for a while that they have their license and are prepared to do offshore exploration which is welcome because not too many private sector companies want to do offshore drilling.”

The Prime Minister’s statements of September 25, 2008 to the effect that drilling was imminent and those he made this week in response to the Coalition’s public plea on offshore drilling simply do not square. Either he did not know what he was talking about in 2008 or he is now deliberately misleading the nation.

Of further interest is the recent and sudden visit to Taiwan of the Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega which took place during the week of May 19, 2010. The visit by Vega, who signed the exploration agreement with the Taiwanese in his capacity of Minister responsible for petroleum, took place just days after APAMO, COLA and Oceana declared their demand for a ban on offshore drilling. While COLA had first advocated this ban in January of this year, it was on May 11, 2010 that this unprecedented Coalition took shape. There was no advance notice of Vega’s Taiwan trip, which proceeded even though the PM would also be away from Belize at this same time attending CDB meetings.

Is it, as some political insiders have suggested, that Mr. Vega travelled to Taipei to offer assurances that the CPC contract would NOT be altered despite the groundswell of public opposition to offshore drilling here at home? Mr. Barrow has certainly ducked and dodged from the clear cut case for the offshore drilling moratorium put forward by the Coalition. Do contributions from Taiwan outweigh an environmental Armageddon like the one unfolding in the Gulf? (Quite apart from the Taiwan connection is the recent revelation that the law firm of Barrow and Williams, a firm from where the PM says he “publicly and openly draws a share of the profits,” were attorneys for Princess Petroleum Ltd., another beneficiary of an offshore drilling concession.)

The disaster in the Gulf is proof positive that decades of oil profits can be erased in a single spill. Belize’s coastline is arguably more fragile and more precious than the Gulf of Mexico. Expert simulation models have shown that within just a matter of hours, an oil spill in Belizean waters would wreak irreparable havoc upon our reef and wetlands, wiping out our fisheries and devastating our coastal communities. Quite literally, Belize would never be the same. No amount of Taiwanese money can justify putting in harm’s way the Belize Barrier Reef and the livelihoods and communities of tens of thousands of Belizeans.

For a quick buck, politicians have debased the Belizean passport and allowed hundreds of thousands of acres of prime land to be gobbled up. If the paltry share of onshore oil extraction accruing to the people of Belize is any indication of future profits, then the conspicuous risk of offshore drilling far outweigh the financial benefits. The Gulf is an open and shut case in so far as the environment is concerned. This UDP administration should implement an immediate moratorium on offshore oil drilling, lifting this only on the basis of the approval of the Belizean public by way of a national referendum.

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