WASHINGTON, CMC – The chairman of the United States House Foreign Affairs Committee, Brian J. Mast, is urging the United States State Department to look into issues regarding Belize’s rule of law and investment climate, particularly disputes involving land ownership and foreign investors.
Mast has written to US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, saying that “concerns have been raised with the Committee regarding the state of rule of law in Belize and the potential implications for US strategic interests, American investments, and the bilateral relationship.
“I would appreciate the Department’s assessment of recent investor disputes involving compulsory land acquisition to determine whether these issues warrant closer U.S. attention,” he wrote in the March 10, 2026, letter.
He said that Belize’s investment climate warrants particular attention, noting that the State Department’s own 2025 Investment Climate Statement “notes that U.S and other foreign investors have cited lack of transparency, land insecurity, undue influence by politically powerful stakeholders, and corruption as impediments to doing business in Belize”.
Mast also raised a geopolitical issue given that “Belize is one of a dwindling number of nations that recognizes Taiwan over the People’s Republic of China, making it a valuable partner in countering Beijing’s diplomatic offensive in the hemisphere.
‘Challenges to the rule of law in Belize could create vulnerabilities that the PRC may seek to exploit,” Mast wrote.
At the center of the issue is the Stake Bank Island cruise port project, where ownership claims and compulsory acquisition proceedings have dragged on for years.
On August 27, 2024. The Belize government issued a statement indicating that it had signed a notice of intention to acquire the disputed 24-acre extension of Stake Bank Island compulsorily.
At the time, the Government said the parcel, identified as Fiat Grant 881 of 2021, and given to Michael Feinstein, the former chairman and shareholder of Stake Bank Enterprises Ltd., is currently the subject of an ownership dispute at proceedings in the High Court.
But it noted “unfortunately, that dispute is detrimental to the completion of a project that is in the public interest” and that “once the acquisition and assignment to Stake Bank Enterprises is finalized, the cruise berthing facility, which has been halted since the company entered receivership in March of this year, can proceed to completion”.
The Government said that the company’s receivership and the subsequent land dispute over ownership of the island extension have frozen works on the project, resulting in significant delays to construction and, crucially, to completing a facility that, for the first time, would provide cruise ship passengers with a dock for disembarkation.
It said that cruise tourism arrivals have continued to fall due to the lack of a proper berthing facility in the Belize District.
“Stake Bank’s Receiver and Creditors petitioned Cabinet consideration for the acquisition to rescue the project and its BZ$270 million (One Belize dollar=US$0.49 cents) investment to date. The Creditors have provided a comprehensive indemnity to the Government so that all costs, if any, ultimately arising from the acquisition are to be paid by the Creditors and not the Government.”
The Government recalled that in 2014, the then Government enacted the Stake Bank Cruise Docking Facility Development Act of 2014, which provided various investment incentives and committed the Government to supporting Stake Bank’s Completion in the context of a much-needed cruise berthing facility.
“This berthing is even more urgent today as cruise ships have become larger. Having a dock for cruise ships, extending the tour times for visitors, and salvaging a major investment project underline the rationale for the Cabinet’s decision,” the Government said in the 2024 statement.
The Feinstein family, original developers of Stake Bank, welcomed Mast’s intervention. In a statement, they said the letter “directly rebuts recent public attempts to dismiss or minimise concerns about the treatment of Stake Bank Islands and sends a clear signal to the Government of Belize and Atlantic Bank that these matters are now the subject of high-level U.S. scrutiny”.
The family said, “It is now a matter of US congressional oversight and foreign policy, not just a private dispute.
“The Prime Minister may choose to downplay or dismiss questions about Stake Bank Island in public, but the United States Congress plainly does not,” Feinstein added.
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