Office of the Prime Minister threatens legal recourse against local news station

The Office of the Prime Minister has issued a sharply worded press release responding to what it calls “petty, personal, malicious, and frankly ridiculous attacks” made against Prime Minister John Briceño by Channel 7’s News Director Jules Vasquez.  The latest dispute stems from a story aired yesterday, which mentioned the arrest of Miss Universe co-owner Raul Rocha in Mexico. The news story referenced a meeting Rocha had attended over a year ago with the Prime Minister, implying a questionable association. The Office of the Prime Minister flatly refuted the insinuation, explaining that the 2024 meeting was part of an official government-to-government discussion on trade and investment, one of dozens of such meetings the PM attends with international partners.  The government went further, noting that if Vasquez is intent on linking the PM to wrongdoing based on who he has met with, then by that logic he could also attempt to connect the Prime Minister to crimes committed by the late Nestor Vasquez, the father of Jules Vasquez.  He essentially told Jules that he could make that link based solely on meetings he, the Prime Minister, had with his father in the official capacity he held at the time.  The release notes, quote, “The Office of the Prime Minister asserts that if Vasquez is indeed on the hunt for corruption, he need not look far …..”.  The release continued, “The late Vasquez was caught embezzling funds from Belize Telemedia Limited, in corruption most foul. In fact, Jules Vasquez himself was implicated, because his father used his position at BTL to funnel exorbitant sums of money to Channel 7, a fact which certainly would have been known by News Director Jules.”  End of quote.  The Office of the Prime Minister emphasized that it welcomes fair and factual reporting, even when critical, because Belize is a democratic nation where robust journalism plays a vital role. What it rejects, the release says, is “skewed reporting and sanctimonious editorializing,” which it believes has now become habitual.  In closing, the release noted, that the if these “baseless personal attacks” continue, the government will explore all legal avenues to hold Vasquez accountable.