Technical Arguments in Supreme Court Over Venezuela Money End

Today at ten past 5:00 two days of highly technical legal arguments between government and the Belize Bank ended in the Supreme Court. They are arguing over jurisdiction: whether the matter of the $10 million in Venezuelan money should be heard in Belizean courts of before a British tribunal. It’s a consequential difference, both logistically and tactically: the Belize Bank has pronounced advantages if it is arbitrated in the UK, while the Solicitor General’s office is better on its home turf. But keeping it in perspective, one of government’s attorneys Michael Young says that the reason they are in this mess is because the former Prime Minister and Attorney General agreed to foreign arbitration.