{"id":123905,"date":"2021-02-13T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T13:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=123905"},"modified":"2021-02-13T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T13:05:00","slug":"weston-charges-liats-destruction-was-deliberate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/weston-charges-liats-destruction-was-deliberate\/","title":{"rendered":"Weston charges LIAT\u2019s destruction was \u2018deliberate\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A government minister in\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Antigua and Barbuda linked Barbados to what he described as attempts to steal LIAT or destroy the regional airline.<\/p>

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In a scathing address to the Parliament in John\u2019s on Thursday, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance Lennox Weston, while not naming Barbados directly, made references to Prime Minister Mia Mottley and her Government, a majority shareholder in LIAT.<\/p>\n

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Minister Weston said there was a plan to takeover LIAT or to destroy it at a meeting in Barbados to discuss the relocation of the headquarters to St Vincent and the Grenadines \u2013 another shareholder territory.<\/p>

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Describing the previous Antigua and Barbuda government of being too soft, he recalled that his administration has always said that the plan was to steal LIAT \u201cand if they failed, to destroy LIAT\u201d.<\/p>

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\u201cLIAT wasn\u2019t destroyed just by any act of COVID, LIAT was destroyed by a deliberate attempt to either take over or destroy,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

Weston read from a memorandum dated March 23, 2019 which indicated that a team from the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCA) met with the legal counsel for LIAT who notified ECCA that the airline was considering relocating its headquarters from St John\u2019s to Kingstown and sought information on change of location.<\/p>

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