Rene Montero’s family collected three million in land compensation and interest

There is more scandalous information tonight about the hustle in the Ministry of Natural Resources known as the hot bed of corruption. A past P.U.P. administration in 1998 repossessed eighty-one acres of land in separate parcels in the Privassion Enclave area of the Mountain Pine Ridge and on North Ambergris Caye. The land was acquired just before the 98 general elections by four members of the family of U.D.P. Minister Rene Montero. The Montero siblings later in 2011 collected handsomely under the regime of former Natural Resources Minister Gaspar Vega. Yvette, Ismael, Jaime, Miguel and Alejandro Montero were collectively paid more than one point seven million dollars in compensation, plus one point three million plus in interest receiving a total of three point one million dollars collectively. It is part of the seventy-one million plus paid out in Vega’s eight-year tenure as Lands Minister for compensation on many land transactions. P.U.P. Leader John Briceño broke down the details today and provided copies of the land and related documents.

John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader

John Briceño

“The Montero family collected one million, seven hundred and seventy-eight thousand, three hundred and fifty-two dollars. And to add [insult] to injury as they say, they were given seven percent interest from the date of acquisition. So when you combine everything, the interest is approximately one million, three hundred and sixty-nine thousand, three hundred and thirty-one dollars. The Montero family have been compensated by we, the taxpayers of the country, a grand total of three million, one hundred and forty-seven thousand, six hundred and eighty-three dollars – give or take a few dollars since we didn’t work out to the last cent the interest. The point we’re making is that [from] some time ago, we have been asking for the audit that the Prime Minister promised that he was going to do in the Ministry of Natural Resources when it comes to compensation. Because we knew that there was a major hustling, we knew there was a scam, we knew there was pilferaging, we knew that there was thieving in the Ministry of Natural Resources. And this was one of the easiest ways that they were getting their hands on millions of dollars. Seventy-million dollars plus has been given out under Gaspar Vega, and to this day, we cannot see the audit as to who was paid, how much they were paid, what they were paid for and why they were paid for. This is a direct indictment of the Cabinet and the Prime Minister as Minister of Finance. The Cabinet knew what they were doing from day one; that’s why you see mostly Montero.”