Recently confiscated rosewood sold off at preferential prices to German Vega
Tonight, there is confirmation that an undisclosed, but significant amount of rosewood has disappeared from the Savannah Forest Station. We say disappeared, but there’s no magic involved, just a Cabinet directive. News Five has been following the chronology of events and came up with this. The rosewood in question, illegally harvested, was confiscated during the April operations conducted by the Forest Department. All of it was stored at the Savannah Forest Station in the Toledo District. That is what you’re looking at here in these pictures. All of this rosewood, every board foot, was destined for the B.D.F.’s Fairweather Camp for safekeeping. Now these pictures taken this past week show the Savannah Forest Station, but what they don’t show is any rosewood. It’s all gone. Here’s where it gets interesting. Some of the rosewood did reach Fairweather Camp, but we are told that most of it didn’t. Want to guess what happened? Well, News Five is reliably informed that Cabinet decided to sell a significant portion of the illegally harvested, confiscated rosewood to exporter GIV Enterprises, owned by the brother of the Deputy Prime Minister. And no surprise – the rosewood was sold to GIV at highly preferential prices.
German Vega
We note that in July, 2013, government sold rosewood to GIV Enterprises for fifteen thousand Belize dollars per container. A valuation provided by the Forestry Department at the same time revealed that each container was worth as much as two hundred thousand dollars, exported. Minister Lisel Alamilla did not answer our request for an interview, and we were informed that Chief Forest Officer Wilber Sabido is on leave. News Five will continue to follow what has every appearance of being another rosewood scandal in the making.
Dis da why it no weh stop. I bet these here gangsters pay somebody lee bit of nothin fi chop down di rosewood so later govt could confiscate it and sell it to them cronies fi cheap. Govt have to stop try mess up di environment and remove dat de play play minista weh supposed to be in charge. Or maybe di minista de da wah nother conference di talk so she could avoid taking action.
This is a polarizing example of how out of control our government is, if this doesn’t illustrate dictatorship and we the people don’t see it for what it is then we are truly blind and utterly delusional. This is government telling the people we will do what we want when we want and no one can or even will say anything to stop us from doing what we want. My people my people there comes a time when the intellectuals of this country and the handful of people that can still think for themselves and that still care about the future of this nation need to just stand back and be silent for the majority of this nation has become but obedient sheep in their masters pasture. This is truly a sad time we are living in; we accept the stealing of food out of poor people mouth by greedy scumbags and we accept totally the rape and destruction of our natural resources. We are but a sad bunch of… I want to say adult children but even children have a sense of rebellion in them and they know when they are being taken advantage of. In a time of paying 25% tax on everything but the air you breathe and making decisions like should me and my family eat or should I send my children to school these human ticks gorge themselves on everything but our very souls then we sit back and wonder why we are one paycheck away from being homeless. But then again this doesn’t matter to anyone anymore as long as we get out $50 and a pat on the head while they commend us for being good livestock.
Just more corruption its blatant. people are so sick of it time and time again.
I here rumblings of revolution in Belize. People are starting to talk about it all over. This is a failed state, and should be treated as such.
This is getting beyond ridiculous! This criminal nonsense has got to stop. Is there any agency within GOB that is not corrupt? These arrogant bureaucrats and their greedy relatives are ruining our country. It is time for a real 3rd party to take over.
This is a clear example of how this government is running our country. They’re running this country on the bases of corruption and nepotism. This trend only shows the interest of this government. The rich will get richer and the poor will become poorer with this government. That would could have been sold and the revenues gotten from it invested back into our county for we the people. This incompetent government will rather sell it at a “preferential” price to this man which will keep all the profits from the rosewood.