Perez Responds as UDP Highlights Cost Crunch  

The political back‑and‑forth on Ambergris Caye isn’t slowing down. Earlier this week, the opposition didn’t only take aim at San Pedro’s mayor, they also came down hard on Area Representative Andre Perez. UDP caretaker Gabriel Zetina used a press conference to highlight what many islanders are feeling: the soaring cost of living, especially the steep price of renting a home on La Isla Bonita. So, we asked Perez about it. He told us he knows exactly how tough life on the island has become, and says he’s been working to make sure residents can secure something more permanent, a piece of land to call their own.

 

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South

“First of all, I recognize the cost of living that is very high. It’s something that is happening at a global level, but I’m not detracting from the thoughts on it, especially in San Pedro. And that is why I have been embarking on an ambitious plan to give out lands to our people, getting lands to people, because the only way to empower people is giving them lands to start to build their homes. Now, I heard about the rent being too high, but we need to look at something. There needs to be stronger regulations for those real estate agencies. They are getting away and very soon, very soon, in fact, at the Ministry of Natural Resources, they’re working on new legislation to strengthen the laws that we have these real estate agencies that they have to be kept in check, because they are part and parcel of what is happening in this country, whereby they are able to take the value of land at a higher level and thereby displacing our people. We have to fight that. And that is my aim, to fight by getting lands to our people, which I have been doing and continue to do.”

 

Paul Lopez

“What are you doing to ensure that that process is not politicized? The criticism is that only politically connected people are getting parcels of land under your leadership.”

 

Andre Perez

“And I shoot that down again instantly that that’s a pile of hogwash. Let me tell you something. In my office, and I can show the figures and the papers and everything there, who are the ones getting the lands are the younger generation, single mothers and young couples who are born and grown there in that community that are first-time landowners.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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