BELMOPAN, Mon. Apr. 26, 2021– The Attorney General, Hon. Magali Marin Young, told the media last Friday that the Government may appeal the $5.6 million judgment issued by the Supreme Court recently.
As previously reported, the claim stemmed from a failed land compensation deal between a new UDP government of Belize and the claimant, Olivia Villanueva.
Two days before the 2008 General Election, Villanueva was sold approximately 102.5 acres of Turneffe Island Range for the meager sum of $27,300. The sale was approved by the former Minister of Natural Resources, Florencio Marin, Sr., a long-time PUP politician who is now retired. (His son is current Minister of Defence, Florencio Marin, Jr, and his daughter, Magali Marin Young, is the Attorney General.)
The retired politician’s daughter, Magali Marin Young, the Attorney General of Belize, has now tasked the attorneys inside her ministry to review the judgment to advise the Minister of Natural Resources, Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde, on the viability of a potential appeal. The Ministry is also undergoing an internal review to eliminate the risks of land compensation actions.
“There has been discussion, and I think the Deputy Prime Minister is reviewing his Ministry and seeing how he can tighten up and eliminate this, but he would the better person at this stage to give you any direction of where he intends to take that particular issue,” Marin Young told the media.