If elected to form the island’s new Government, the Anguilla United Front (AUF) will solve the thorny and protracted issues surrounding Cap Juluca, thus bringing ownership stability and progress there.
That and other related pledges were made by Mr Evans McNiel Rogers, Leader of the Opposition in the Anguilla House of Assembly, at a public meeting held by the AUF in West End, the island’s hotel belt, on Saturday, May 21.
Mr Rogers, who said that the West End constituency was rightly described as “the bread basket of Anguilla”, focused a great deal of his delivery on the current ownership and other problems surrounding Cap Juluca Resort. “No one can question the significance and importance of Cap Juluca to the overall development of this country,” he stated. “Cap Juluca’s problems didn’t start four years ago. They were around for a very long time. But in July 2009, after years of serious, constructive, painstaking discussions and negotiations, a workable Memorandum of Agreement was agreed to and signed by the former [AUF] Government.
“If this [AUM] Government had adopted the MOA that was signed in 2009, Cap Juluca would be in a better position than it is today; and that cloud of uncertainty that exists around Cap Juluca would not have been there if they had adopted that 2009 MOA that the previous AUF Administration signed and agreed to. Now, after four-and-a-half years, the same AUM Government are now trying to revert to what they call ‘standard language’ from that same MOA and they are even making references to it.”
Mr Rogers methodically examined various portions of that MOA – as well as letters – and the positive results that could have taken place for Cap Juluca. He claimed that his perusal of the document was intended to achieve the following result: “To show the people of this country, the people in the West End district in particular, the employees at Cap Juluca and everyone who was involved in the hospitality industry, that this AUM Government do not know what they are doing.”
The AUF Opposition Leader accused the AUM Government of “wasting time and changing MOAs to MOUs which only helped to create more devastating uncertainties to the Cap Juluca situation.” He claimed that the AUM Government began to undermine the 2009 MOA from the time it entered office.
Mr Rogers quoted Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes, as saying at a press conference on May 9, that his Government was seeking to buy out the Hickcoxes’ ownership of Cap Juluca. Rogers said: “He [the Chief Minister] is hoping and waiting for permission from the British Government because he and Dr Harrigan had already spoken to a bank in Trinidad, and banks in Anguilla, to get a short-term loan to purchase or to buy out the Hickoxes in the Cap Juluca deal.”
Mr Rogers continued: “As an AUF Government, we are going to sit down with all the relevant stakeholders, on an even playing field, with a bias towards no one. We are going to look out for the best interest of the people of this country, and we will also take into consideration the interest of Cap Juluca, its employees and its customers. That is what a sensible Government should do, and that is what a sensible Government should have done. Litigation may always be there, but Cap Juluca, and other properties, must function because they are the bloodline of this country. This was done before, and it can be done again.
“The AUM Administration has compromised its position by being biased in dealing with Cap Juluca. It is abundantly clear that, with their attitude and approach, that they do not, and the cannot, solve the situation in Cap Juluca…
“An AUF Government will, and must, sit down whether with the Hickoxes, the Brillas and everybody else involved, without prejudice, and deal with the situation that confronts that project. Cap Juluca is too important as an asset to this country and its people not to do that.”
