Another Dubious Land Transaction on La Isla Bonita?
Residents near the San Pedro lagoon are up in arms over the purported sale of a property they say had been set aside for the construction of a park. The sought-after location was being pursued by the Rubio family whose matriarch had been living nearby for over twenty-five years. Each time she inquired about the vacant waterfront, she was informed that the property was crown land and that it had been designated as a recreational space. It came to their attention recently, however, that the parcel in question had been sold quietly through a real estate company on the island. Stephen Rubio, who has for years moored his boat on the empty lot, says that the previous administration underhandedly sold off the property.
On the Phone: Stephen Rubio, Resident, San Pedro
“Well my mother owns a property and has owned a property for over the past twenty-five years on the lagoon side and in front of us is the water side and so for many years she has been pleading with the government for a little title for it and she’s been told that it’s going to be Queen’s land or Crown property and that they can’t sell it or won’t be allowed to sell it. This is a property that we’ve used all these years to pull up our boats and a spit that we use to clean fish and we have several different families involved in the upkeep and the maintenance of this property and we’ve been getting all this push around and they’ve told us that they can’t sell it. But now, we notice that there’s a real estate sign there and we got to find out that it’s already been sold. I know it’s a little bit late, the way it looks. What I’m trying to get is that all this authority that ended up selling it, you know, it shows the corruption that exists in this ministry because, or the previous administration.”
Isani Cayetano
“Whom did you reach out to in an attempt to purchase the property?”
On the Phone: Stephen Rubio
“Well that’s what my mother did at the time, she dealt with the person that was in charge of lands. I don’t know who it was, but she always got the same answer that it cannot be sold because it’s Crown land, Crown property, but yet now we see a real estate sign there and we find out that it’s been sold. I mean for all that we have invested, the thousands of dollars that we have invested in this area, us and all the other families that use this area to pull up their boats and do the fishing, we feel that it’s not fair, you know, and we feel like we are liable for some kind of compensation and for us it’s more a public awareness effort so that any relevant authority and the general public can look at this and know that, you know, it’s a bad deal then.”
Isani Cayetano
“I understand that there is also a portion of the property that just out into the sea that has been reclaimed.”
On the Phone: Stephen Rubio
“Yeah, you know it’s basically the water that they are extending out and adding more topper to it.”
Isani Cayetano
“At any point in time, was there ever an attempt to reach out to the area representative to see if he could intervened in this whole scenario?”
On the Phone: Stephen Rubio
“Yes, well that recently happened before this elections, you know, he promised that he would help us with the title because we live right in front of it, so I believe that we should be the ones to have the first choice, you know, if they decided to sell it.”
No Preference Given to Neighbors in Purchase of San Pedro Land
According to Rubio, he is unaware of who the new owner of the property is, suffice to say that they were never given first preference when it came to the purchase of the land, despite many years of effort to legally obtain it.
On the Phone: Stephen Rubio, Resident, San Pedro
“Well I am not really sure who the owner is but I know REMAX is the real estate agent that has the sign up there.”
Isani Cayetano
“Going back a bit, you mentioned that you wanted to seek compensation for whatever you’ve invested in that property, based on what you’ve described as a liability. Who would you seek this kind of relief from, would you be pursuing a suit against the Government of Belize through the Ministry of Natural Resources?”
On the Phone: Stephen Rubio
“Well, I would just, I think the person that pocketed money and, you know, did all this transaction is the one that’s responsible to at least compensate us with a little portion of whatever they illegally did, you know. My main thing is how much it’s going to affect us. This waterside access for us to be able to pull up our boats every year, now we won’t be able to do that. This is where we come and clean our fish and, you know, in this COVID time it’s gonna be an extra expense for us to go to Belize City or go to a boatyard to do the necessary maintenance of our boats, you know. We really feel like it’s not fair the way the government played us behind our backs and went and sold it to somebody else when we should have been given the first priority to own the property.”
Channel 5
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