Two cruise ships docked in Belize today. That two represents the greatest number of ships that have been in Belizean waters on one day since August. So today was supposed to be a good day for business but at the Tourism Village – but tensions between management and the tenants were thick. That is because this morning the Tourism Village – which is owned by Diamonds International – served notice on some of its tenants informing them that their rent is due and they were being evicted.
One of those tenants is Roque Escalante - the owner of the Iguana Rana Bar. He got the news this morning and he says it shocked him. Escalante concedes he owes the rent but says he simply cannot pay and that’s why he says he will fight any attempts to evict him.
Roque Escalante,
“I as one of the persons who I think is one of the biggest renters in this village, have a serious complaint against the village. What the village is doing right now is that we had a problem, this problem arose after Hurricane Dean. Hurricane Dean came by and then we had the floods and then we had Felix and the ships, especially Carnival Glory, weren’t coming to Belize, they rerouted.
We lost an amount of days that we thought we would have business. I know we are paying rent here at the village. Now what’s happening at the village, at the village because we have problems in August and September, the village is going about, the management of the village, is going around locking up people’s businesses because they can’t pay their rent. And I am sure a lot of people, just like I am, there is no money to pay it now because there were no ships. We need to look at August and September, it went down. I am sure it is coming back in October.
They are locking down people’s businesses and telling the people if you can’t pay the rent, we will lock down your shop. They came to me today and said Mr. Escalante, you haven’t paid your rent so evacuate the premises.”
Fort Street Tourism Village Manager James Nisbet is in Germany and told us to contact his attorney. Because the story developed after 5:00 pm, we were unable o reach his attorney.
