And two tour operators who have a unique perspective on the Paumen/Modiri property dispute are Yohny Rosado and David Almendarez. As members of FECTAB, they have long led the charge for indigenous ownership of tour operations. They claim that both Paumen and Modiri called them to the table - and they told us why they rejected the partnership:..
David Almendarez, Cave Tubing R Us
"It's ironic that Mr. Paumen, who is the guy that has all the big contracts with the preferred cruise operators, is now the person threatening to break the law. It's a shame that he will use his employees as pawns and put them out there to rally and say they are going to break down this and that. When we all know that Dark Night is the culprit here and they are the ones that get benefits from the government that have the inside jobs and now they are ones that don't want to abide by the law. The law has stated that that is that gentleman's land. But because Mr. Paumen have the nice fat contract, he is trying to bully his way through this man land. So I am saying Mr. Paumen, fix up."
Yohny Rosado, cavetubing.com
"They have approached Mr. Modiri, before Mr. Paumen to offer us work with him. But we saw the fight with elephants. Why are we going to be there? We and the local tour operators from Belmopan were invited to work with them and we were going to pay this - with Modiri and Paumen. When the cave closed Paumen is the only one that can do cave tubing. So he also invite me whenever the cave close at Nohoch Che'en and I denied him and they want to use us a media puppets - whenever we want to rile up we are going to call you guys - no, no. We don't need that. We already taking lick with the park rangers, with NICH and we will take lick with another set? No. We don't want to go there any at all."
David Almendarez, Cave Tubing R Us
"Mr. Paumen, you are a part of the law like everybody else. If you want the piece of land, offer the man a nice significant amount of money and I'm pretty sure he would be able to buy the land. But this man want to use us and come undercover. It just goes to show the stinkingness of how they come to Belize and do what they want and then they label us FECTAB hooligans and criminals and put us as a set of persona non grata and those guys gets the preferred cruise ships and the awards and BTB flags all over the place. It just goes to show the level of inequality in our country and that Belize is not for Belizeans anymore, it's for the person who comes with the biggest bucks."
Later on, we'll have more from that pair as they complain that the BTB is pushing all operators away from the doors of the Fort street Tourism Village, and into the Memorial Park.
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