Government Seeks to Reclaim Controversial Belizean Beach Land

The Briceno Administration wants to reclaim the 2.5 acres of land in the Belizean Beach area.  Recent documents surfaced that revealed that at the time of the sale, the property was being processed for the Belize Coast Guard. It was additionally revealed that the land was sold for a pittance just before the 2020 general elections.  Our newsroom recently reported that the land was quietly sold to John Pollard, a close ally of former minister Anthony “Boots” Martinez, in July 2020. The sale is now under public scrutiny after residents were denied access to the beach and the media has highlighted the questionable sale. One caller on The Morning Show on Monday, stated that he and his family have used the beach regularly, but were recently turned away. The former Port Loyola Area Representative Anthony “Boots” Martinez identified himself as the contractor for a tourism project on the said property that was forced to cease and desist on Friday by the Central Building Authority.  This morning, Minister of the Public Service Henry Charles Usher, while speaking about an apparent discovery made by the Tax Department, confirmed that the government hopes to take steps to reacquire the property.

Henry Charles Usher, Fort George Area Representative: “The country knows that there is a clear difference between the parties. Just this past week the headlines included a land scandal involving former UDP Minister Boots Martinez and the former UDP proprietors of the Boledo, who were not only milking Belizeans for millions of dollars without giving back one cent to sports, not one cent to health, not one cent to education, not one cent to social projects, nothing. But those proprietors and whoever was involved were not only cashing in their wealth, it is being reported by the Tax Department that they were also dodging millions in taxes. Mr. Speaker, just like how this government took back Boledo for the Belizean people, it is my hope that we can take back Belizean Beach. And I wonder if any person from the opposition side will join in this chorus to take back Belizean Beach.”

Interestingly, the obscene sale of the land was done under the previous administration for which Tracy Panton was a Cabinet member.  When asked about the land sale and her knowledge of the transaction, she made it clear that she is not to be blamed in this incident.  

Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition: “I was not aware when that piece of land or property was sold to Boots, to my former colleague. The government has the right to reacquire the land in the public interest, if that’s what they think needs to happen. I don’t know the details. It’s now in his hands, or the hands of people who are close to him and if we need to reacquire it for the public interest there are allocations in the budget to do that. I want to say this carefully. There is a tendency by this administration, knowing fully well where they made mistakes in the past, to say a previous administration made a mistake, things, something went wrong, decisions that were not popular took place and so you have to hold a future set of leaders to account. I don’t support that idea. If mistakes are made they have to be rectified. You can’t hold me to account for something that I was not responsible for or that I never knew about. You will remember that secret agreement signed by the former Prime Minister Musa and Mr. Ashcroft nobody knew about it not even his cabinet knew about it. And so there is a way to rectify it if the government deems that it is important enough to do so.”

Another recent discovery is that 13 acres of land adjacent to the Belizean Beach is the property of a non-governmental organization dubbed “Housing for the Poor”.  The organization is linked to Martinez, and has placed an 11 million dollar price tag on the parcels of land.