Last night you heard Minister of Natural Resources Gaspar Vega explain how his ministry had cancelled leases on beach and seabed properties from 2012 on Northern Caye Caulker. But, as he stated, there are over a hundred cases like that on the Northern side of that island - which from the early "two-thousands" has been a sort of wild-wild west for real estate grabs and survey pegs in the seabed. Yesterday Vega said what happened shouldn't have, and fixing it is complicated by speculation and multiple private transactions:...
Hon. Gaspar Vega, Minister of Natural Resources
"Because it is a law, a Belizean law that you should not put a peg in the waters and that is something that the ministry is looking to address with the association of surveyors, because first of all they should not be doing that survey. It doesn't matter how much they pay them to survey the land. So, it's a combination, it's not that simple. The ones prior to this administration - it's even more complicated, because there is some cases where I say someone by the name of Renan Briceno owning a whole lot of beach front, but I mean it affects a lot of people. We have somebody like Rodla Construction, that's affects probably hundreds of people."
Jules Vasquez
"He has his in the sea I believe."
Hon. Gaspar Vega, Minister of Natural Resources
"The complicated part is that these people have resold the property to other people. So it becomes even more complicated for the Lands Department."
Jules Vasquez
"And in deed in the case of Rodla, he may have sold it to friends in the UDP as well."
Hon. Gaspar Vega, Minister of Natural Resources
"Well, they sell it to whoever they want. That's their right."
Jules Vasquez
"That further complicates it?"
Hon. Gaspar Vega, Minister of Natural Resources
"It doesn't make it more complicated for me."
As we told you last night, RODLA Construction sold its substantial beach properties to former UDP party Chairman and Minister Doug Singh who told us he paid close to one million US dollars for it.
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