Controversial 26 Acres of Land in Belama to Be Distributed to Residents

Francis Fonseca

Last night, we told you that the government of Belize has brought a claim against the former Minister of Natural Resources, Hugo Patt, for alleged misfeasance in office. As we said, the claim is in relation to twenty-six acres of government land that was sold to a private company in November 2020 at a price way below the value at which it was purchased by the ministry. In 2021, the current Minister of Natural Resources, Cordel Hyde publicly denounced the transfer and noted that the lands would not be transferred to the company. Those twenty-six acres are located within the Freetown division and this morning, Area Representative Francis Fonseca told reporters that the twenty-six acres are being subdivided and will be distributed to residents.

Francis Fonseca, Area Representative, Freetown

“That work is ongoing. We are working along with the Ministry of Natural Resources, so that work is ongoing. That is a very sad episode. And I encourage everybody to, I saw it on channel five last night, I encourage everyone to revisit the message from the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Natural Resources when he talked about this issue, I think more than two years ago, a shameful, disgraceful matter and as I understand it they are taking action against certain individual in that regard. But, in my view it is an absolute act of corruption and so we have worked very hard with the Ministry of Natural Resources to try to address that issue and I think we are very close to the point where we are going to be able to distribute those lands in a very transparent, open, accountable way to residents of Belize City and make sure that they get those lands.”