Hulse Reveals Details of Placencia Land Transaction

Melvin Hulse

The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back, said Hulse, is a land deal gone terribly wrong in Placencia. He claims that the Ministry of Natural Resources, at which he was a staple for so many years, is taking away land from grassroots Belizeans – land promised to them by Prime Minister Dean Barrow. 

Melvin Hulse, Former U.D.P. Standard Bearer, Stann Creek West

“Dat dah fu the people of Placencia. We got it surveyed. The north side ended up with about forty-one lots. We were instructed that the people can only get thirty-one. The Minister said only thirty-one we could give out, so okay… we gave out thirty-one to the people of Placencia. We got it authenticated, people got their leases, took everlasting to put it in the system…madafish…like they mi wah give and tek. It got in the system. Eventually they got purchase price…and so the people got purchase price, they borrowed money to pay their purchase price…the couple who built their houses borrowed money and built their house. I managed to get some money and built the street. The street deh deh. And now they have been told – we wah cancel all of that. We noh wah give unu title because somehow or other we give dis bally a title for it when unu mi got lease…title to the forty-one lots. Suddenly a title has been resurrected – 2012-2013 – a title for that flipping land to a Jamaican. Madafish…I mean, done acquired. Now everyone has been called by the Ministry to say forget it…don’t try to start to build cause we’re taking it back cause we lost a case in Court. Lost which case in which court?”

Hulse says he is now an independent thinker, beholden to no party. That, he says, means that he can freely criticize the government whenever he comes across issues of abuse and victimization, or even corruption.