Is There a Land Grab Happening North of San Pedro?

A one-acre parcel of land seven miles north of San Pedro Town is causing an uproar among residents of La Isla Bonita because it was sold at rock bottom price to a politically connected individual within days of the elections. Several other parcels of land were sold for two thousand, five hundred dollars to at least three persons, former U.D.P. Mayor Elsa Paz, Karen Bevans and Jorge Aldana.  The acquisition of those properties is raising eyebrows because of their prime location on the island.  This morning, Belize Rural South Area Representative Manuel Heredia Jr. set out to justify the sale of the properties.

Manuel Heredia Jr.

Manuel Heredia Jr., Area Rep, Belize Rural South

“Let me be very clear, everything that we do is transparent.  You can check in Belmopan, the minister himself has said, anybody that wants to check what was done can check over there.  The one for Jorge Aldana, I am not trying to defend Jorge Aldana but it’s not an island.  I can attest that it is not an island.  But the juggle with this social media and this technology is that they juggle and they turn a swamp, a little piece of swamp, one acre of swamp that he was given right behind X’tan Ha, that is a low area and they transform it into an island.  That area to me, will take I don’t know how many years before anything can develop.  Elsa Paz, again, is a past mayor that worked three consecutive terms in the interest of San Pedro.  Doesn’t she deserve something? What is wrong in it? Fifteen hundred lots have been given to bona fide people of San Pedro.  In Caye Caulker we have given probably around four or five hundred lots also, to the genuine, bona fide Caye Caulker and San Pedro people.  So how in the world are we looking in the interest of a few?  We are looking in the interest of everybody. To cause mischief because this one got one acre, the price of land for government, for both islands, do you know how much they charge the islanders of Caye Caulker for land over here? Fifteen hundred dollars.  You look at the prices in the P.U.P. days, it varied depending on who you are, how close you are, that is the way prices were.  In San Pedro it’s the same.  When we came to power, what we did is standard the prices for San Pedro and Caye Caulker, fifteen hundred for Caye Caulker and twenty-five hundred for San Pedro. One acre, weh kinda hustle you could do with that?  Anybody that wants, let’s say my director, if she wants to do, and that is the intention, to do tourism, little think over there in the future when she retires, she has a right.  She has worked hard for this industry.  She has brought this industry to the heights that it has never been before.  So that is the way we do things.”