Benque mayor sued over park construction
A land dispute in Benque Viejo del Carmen is now in the hands of the Supreme Court, complicated by politics and missing documents. According to the Mayor of that municipality, Said Badi Guerra, the property in question had been designated as a park years ago, and even though it was later subdivided into lots and leased to several individuals, those agreements had later been cancelled. Guerra says checks at the Ministry of Natural Resources and the town council confirmed this. In March of this year, construction began to establish a park on the land. But no sooner had the bulldozers arrived on the site, than police informed the mayor that “the owners” wanted him and his equipment off the property. Guerra says he did another check at the Ministry and again couldn’t find any legal papers indicating that the land was still leased to private individuals. In May, however, those individuals took legal action against Said Badi Guerra and the Benque Viejo del Carmen Town Council. The “owners” claim they are being denied rights to their property and are asking for an injunction to stop all construction work. The matter didn’t take long to get political as Kendal Mendez, one of the plaintiffs, is the People’s United Party standard-bearer for Cayo West. Said Badi Guerra, of course, was voted in on the United Democratic Party ticket in the last municipal elections. The case began this morning in the Supreme Court before Justice Samuel Awich. Representing the town council is U.D.P. party leader and senior counsel, Dean Barrow, while Leo Bradley Jr. is appearing on behalf of Mendez, businessman Miguel Estala and others. But before the injunction application could be heard, Barrow rose and told the court that as a rule of law, Guerra could not be named as a defendant under the Protection Orders of the Public Authorities Act and secondly, under the same act, proceedings against the other defendant, the Benque Viejo Town Council, could not begin until one month after the notice of action had been delivered. On these grounds, Barrow told the court that the bad notice is unsalvageable and that Justice Awich’s hands were tied as the matter had to be struck out. For his part, Bradley told the court that constitutional rights were being infringed and the court has all power to prevent such violations in a timely fashion. Justice Awich agreed to consider those procedural arguments and has reserved judgment until nine-thirty Monday morning.
