The proposed B.T.L. takeover of Speednet is already getting political support in some corners of the P.U.P., but Minister Thea Garcia-Ramirez says she is not ready to sign on just yet. As public debate continues over the acquisition, Garcia-Ramirez says she is withholding judgment until Cabinet gets a formal briefing on what the deal actually means. She acknowledges that the Northern Caucus of the People’s United Party has voted in support of the proposal, but she makes it clear that the caucus position is not the same as an official Cabinet decision. Garcia-Ramirez says she has not yet been given enough information to take a position of her own. According to the minister, the matter has not been fully discussed at the Cabinet level, and she expects that presentation to be held at next week’s meeting. Only then, she says, will she be in a position to properly assess the proposed acquisition.
Thea Garcia-Ramirez
Thea Garcia-Ramirez, Cabinet Minister
“As a political caucus, for the PUP in the north, the caucus remains officially, that’s the standpoint, that’s their position. Everybody has equal rights to state their position. It is not a cabinet position. It’s the caucus, caucus is the one that is saying that they support the acquisition. I myself don’t really know very much about what has happened recently. I think that happened on Tuesday. We were in a cabinet meeting. We had just finished cabinet meeting when I learned of, that there was a meeting. I am unsure, and I’m unwilling to state anything further because I really don’t have all that information. It’s not within my grasp. And I’ll be honest with you, a lot of the times I get my updates through the news. You would think that we would be able to get news fresh from the source, but in this case, as in many other cases, I tune in to Channel 5, and Love, and Channel 7 to get my latest information. So I, in the absence of having real information, because what I’ve heard are rumors. I haven’t seen anything. I will want to wait until cabinet meeting on Tuesday. I am told that we will have a presentation and following that then I will be able to tell you how I feel about it.”
Garcia-Ramirez chaired and voted in the Northern PUP Caucus meeting where a majority of members supported BTL’s proposed acquisition of SMART, but stressed that the caucus position is separate from Cabinet’s.
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