Transparency Questioned in Caye Caulker Land Deal

The debate over the controversial Caye Caulker police station land isn’t cooling off, if anything, it’s heating up. At today’s UDP press conference, Senator and Belize Rural North Caretaker Gabriel Zetina took aim at Area Representative Andre Perez, accusing him of a lack of transparency and honesty on the issue. Zetina says residents were misled about the proposed sale and argues it was public pressure and protest, not government action, that ultimately stopped the land from being sold.

 

Gabriel Zetina, UDP Senator

“He admitted that there was an offer on the table in his recent interview and he had suggested negotiations. What the Caye Caulker people and the village wanted was transparency, honesty, and not transparency after being caught. And, you see, now there is deflection. To me that is mind boggling, especially since the residents were promised that they would have gotten a new building for the police department substation there. The people of Caye Caulker if they would have not stand up, rise together, took to the street protest, you best believe, PUP would have sold that land.”

 

Senator Zetina explained that while the parcel of land is currently in the name of the Belize Police Department, he demanded that the land be transferred into the name of the Caye Caulker Village Council.

 

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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