Also included in the bundle of documents is another interesting one which has to do with land given with the Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary. That area just off Belize City is made up of a number of small mangrove islands. The map and accompanying documentation shows that three persons, Sharon Fraser who is a Belize City Magistrate, her brother Wayne Fraser, and Rurico Alvarado who is a close friend to the UDP were given permission to survey an area on Mapp Caye which according to our map is within the Swallow Caye Sanctuary.
We spoke with Magistrate Fraser this evening and she told us that while she was not aware it was in a reserve – she and her brother have indeed been give permission to survey the property.
But there’s an important back story. Fraser says its compensation for island property that the last government took from her family and conveyed to a person known to us as a consummate PUP insider. That property was the Montego Bay development in which Rico Alvarado was also involved. The PUP insider already sold the land in a private transaction, and so the government agreed to compensate her. She says the government selected the replacement land and her family had nothing to do with the choice. She says they had done some development on Montego Bay for which they will get no compensation.
While we aren’t clear on whether private property can be owned in this reserve, for what conservationists tell us, generally, transferring national land from inside a sanctuary into private hands is against the interest of the reserve.
