So while the supplementary budget and wage bill are heavy matters of state, much of the political juice from today's meeting came from the statements by ministers. This is where 11 ministers laid out what they found when they got to their ministries in Belmopan. Now, you have to give a 10% discount for the usual political embellishment, but what the Minister of Natural Resources described was nothing short of land fraud, visited upon unsuspecting persons - who had given their names and social security numbers into the system for government assistance - only to become unknowing pawns in a much bigger land fraud scheme.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Deputy PM gave an outline:
Hon. Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"It's a scheme that starts with ministers and their representatives able to get copies of the social security cards of the unsuspecting constituents who have come to apply to the offices for financial assistance. From there these copies of social cards would form the bedrock of a land application and those needy unsuspecting individuals would be the recipients of massively lucrative chunks of land, but they don't know. The lands are in their names, but they don't know. The lands are later sold to wealthy individuals, but they don't know. The money shared presumably between the ministers and their cronies, but they don't know."
Hyde outlines two examples of this - the second involved a man named Florencio Talbert - whose name was used in some very big land moves:
Hon. Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"Florencio Talbert says he was very good friends with the then ministry of works CEO Errol Gentle or so he thought. Gentle had asked for his social security card a few times, but he was never told exactly why. Talbert says Errol Gentle even went his house one day for his social security card, but according to Talbert he never questioned anything, because he use to work as Gentle's bodyguard also. So one day last year and enterprising gentleman goes to Florencio and says do you know that you own some of the most prime real estate in this country. Florencio of course says no. So the man convinces Florencio to give him power of attorney so that he can acquire the lands from him, so they go to the lands department together only to find out that one year earlier in 2019 the lands that were in Florencio Talbert's name was transferred to Errol Gentle and to a company named Scorpio Development Company owned by Rene Montero's two sons; Rene Jr. and Robert Montero. All this happened and Florencio Talbert never knew. Never knew he was sitting on some rich mountain pine ridge land and never knew he had transferred the land. All this happened over and over again. Montero learnt well from Gaspar Vega you see, they put lands in unsuspecting people's names; their workers, their humble constituents and they are able to sell or transfer the lands without these people even knowing."
"Rene and his sons cooked up a similar scheme in the Young Gial McRay registration section in the Yalbac area. This area has prime land, absolutely fertile land. They say if you spit, things grow, if you stand too long on the land, you might take root. Nice lands in the Young Gial area. They had government put the lands in their family members' names, daughters-in-laws, nephews, cousins, village councilors, campaigners and then the lands are transferred to two companies controlled by Rene's sons. I think one of the company is Gosen Products Company Ltd. and Kings Landing Ltd. They put 80 acres in Danny Martinez' name in Young Gial, 79.841 acres in Thelma Savala's name in Young Gial. 100 acres to Myra Savala also in Young Gial. 80 acres in Geovanni X name another 49 acres in Geovanni X name another 78.45 acres in the same Geovanni X name in the same Young Gial area. 139 acres in Salvador Martinez name. These lands were all recently transferred to Gosen Products Ltd. who directors is listed as Robert Jaime Montero, the son of Rene Montero. The there is an amount that was transferred to Kings Landing Ltd., another company lead by Rene Amin Montero, 32 acres, several 25 acres plots, 27 acres plots, 18 acres plots - all in Young Gial - all transferred to Kings Landing Ltd. And Robert Jaime Montero got a land certificate from government for 311 acres, again in the Young Gial area. The man them can't get enough of Young Gial. Then he got land certificate for 19 acres and even a 2.83 acres parcel in the same area. They cleaned up everything in the Young Gial area. They even got some purchase approvals for land in that area, but time had ran out, elections came and they had not gotten a chance to pay. These people are classic land hogs."
