BELIZE CITY, Mon. Feb. 4, 2019– A land dispute erupted in the Belama Phase 4 area of Belize City last week and at least two homes, which were said to be on land that is privately owned by a Chinese businessman, Alex Chang, were demolished.
The Opposition People’s United Party area representative, Hon. Francis Fonseca, who is also an attorney, did a title search and was unable to find a record identifying Chang as the owner of the property in question, according to reports on Positive Vibes radio and television, organs of the PUP.
Furthermore, the United Democratic Party, (UDP) standard bearer for the Freetown constituency, Orson Elrington, where the land is located, blames “mischief makers” for demolishing at least two homes that were located on the land.
Last Thursday, Elrington visited the area and spoke to residents and the media.
“I am here because I am the UDP standard bearer for the constituency. I was called by several residents to intervene, and let me make it absolutely clear I am not representing Mr. Chang, I am not acting as an attorney in no capacity for no one in this matter. I am acting as a mediator between them because Mr. Chang himself is a resident of Freetown, so I said, let me try to mediate the situation so that we can reach a compromise that would be beneficial to all persons involved,” Elrington said.
Elrington added, “Somehow yesterday, to my surprise, I got news of it before it came on the news that there were some mischief makers. Persons who were purposely misleading the people of this area, purposely using them rather than helping them, and telling them a bunch of lies and apparently going so far as actually, I don’t know, breaking down some homes or whatever it is.”
News5’s Hipolito Novelo asked Elrington if the persons involved in breaking down the houses were agents of Chang.
Elrington replied, “The text messages are here and I asked Mr. Chang specifically, I called him and asked him to please verify that you guys did not send anybody here to remove any homes, and here are the text messages to confirm such. I asked Mr. Chang if he would be willing to come in front of the media, and he said, ‘you know what, I don’t have any interest in coming in front of the media, but I am willing to respond to you via text message to verify the fact that we did not send anybody here…’
“There is a process where if someone wants to evict you, they need to go through a process; outside of that it would be illegal for anybody to break down any home, so I told them, call the police right away, so that the police can deal with them.”