7 News Belize

Hon. Heredia Answers Critics
posted (September 16, 2014)
The man who is in the hot seat because it was suspected that he was the chief architect of this controversial housing plan is Manuel Junior Heredia.

We were able to grab him for a very brief moment a few minutes before he boarded his 5:30 p.m. flight back to San Pedro this evening. It wasn't the ideal opportunity to address all our questions to him. Nevertheless, we took the opportunity and here's what he told us before the Tropic Air officials asked us to end our interview so that he could get on the plane:

Daniel Ortiz
"You are the architect of a new housing area in the Sunset Cove areas which is supposed to be set aside for a reserve. Do you know anything of this? Is it correct?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism
"Well first of all, yes there is a subdivision that we were working on which last night I saw the pictures of that. I will look at it personally on the site and if the area is not suitable then I will see that it's relocated. I haven't seen it, but if that is the case then I will see that we rectify it, but it is not a reserve. There is a proposed Hol Chan expansion that is being there but that is not yet being approved, it is yet to be amended or whatever before anything will be done. It is not a reserve at this point."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, they are saying that you have somehow interfered in that process as government minister?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism
"Definitely not. I was the architect of trying to do that and I am still lobbying for that. There are little issues that needs to be addressed, but I will still make sure that we... those were shoals that were sold by the PUP recovered by me and now we are trying to see if we can maintain it."

Daniel Ortiz
"We were told that you are the architect of the San Mateo area. This looks like a repeat of a bad location."

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism
"The San Mateo was the PUP that did it. We are the ones that are correcting it okay."

Our colleagues from San Pedro Sun reports that this housing project in the Zone F, which we stress is not officially recognized as a protected area, already has an allocation of 40 acres which has already been surveyed. For context in the size, we note that 0.8 of an acre is about the size of a regulation football field.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize