She lives on Freedom Street in the Port Loyola area but the woman you are about to meet says she has no freedom to breathe. It's a classic example of a right to live in peace versus the right to earn a living. In this case it is private citizen Joan Matus-Avelar versus Cesar Cisneros's Body Shop. The stand off is five years old and after appealing to the Prime Minister, her Area Rep., the City Council, the Ombudsman, the Amandala newspaper, and even the morning talk shows, she told Keith Swift her story today. 7NEWS investigated and tonight we have both sides of a complex and confounding controversy.
Joan Matus-Avelar,
"We are like in jail, we are locked up in our home 24/7, all day."
The jail Joan Matus talks about is her home on Freedom Street. She says she
has no freedom on Freedom Street because of toxic air, which is poisoning her lungs. She says for proof just listen to her - because her gruff voice is one of the many symptoms of damage already done to her lungs by the painting done at this body works shop located across the street from her home.
Joan Matus-Avelar,
"I've been going to both local and foreign doctors and they all come to the same conclusion that the breathing of toxicants as the cause of what I've been suffering for thee past years."
Keith Swift,
And you believe these toxicants are coming from across the street?
Joan Matus-Avelar,
"Definitely because sometimes when we go home I can't even stay in my home, its so strong. As you can see and you can hear in my voice, not only myself is being affected but also my kids, and I know some other residents that are complaining but they are afraid to come forward."
Keith Swift,
You sound hoarse, what is wrong with your throat?
Joan Matus-Avelar,
"I am not, my lung is intoxicated. Three months ago my lung collapsed."
Matus claims her two teenage children are also sick and like her they too have to use this pump to keep breathing. Matus says she isn't the only one and she showed us a petition and letters from her neighbors similarly complaining about the toxic air. One resident we spoke to, who requested anonymity, said she had to leave Freedom Street because her children developed a skin rash.
Former Neighbor,
"I decided to move from there because it affects me and affects the kids and I have one of them who it affected the most. So when I moved from there, like a month after, our skin started to get better."
While we couldn't prove that, the man at the center of the controversy says its all lies. Cesar Cisneros owns the bodyworks shop and he says his workshop, which boasts a chimney, a filter, and a 12-foot fence - meets and exceeds standards set by the City Council and Department of Environment. Besides, he says his infant child, only months old, lives and
breathes the air from the shop and his child isn't sick.
Cesar Cisneros, Owns Bodyworks Shop
"I don't know why she's saying so because I am complying with all the thing that they told me to do so I don't really understand what she wants."
Keith Swift,
You cannot deny the fact that these lady's lung collapsed.
Cesar Cisneros,
"Lie. Lies because right now she hasn't proven nothing. We've already gone to the low court and right she wants to take it to the Supreme Court and they can't prove anything about it. I got my family that lives right here, I got small kids, my youngest one is only year old and she is allergic and I don't have any problem with my child. My workmen would be sick and they have been breathing this thing for long."
Cisneros does have supporters on Freedom Street. A couple of them we polled said the paint shop isn't a bother or a health threat.
Keith Swift,
Does it affect you?
Area Resident #1,
"No."
Area Resident #2,
"It doesn't affect me personally, it doesn't affect me. I have a baby, she's seven months and it doesn't affect me."
But Joan Matus says it affects her and her family and that's all that really matters.
Keith Swift,
Is this personal? Do you have something against these people?
Joan Matus-Avelar,
"By God's good grace I don't. All I'm asking, with a good heart, is that the government please looks into this situation. Its not only me, I'm the one being affected more, but at the same time you have other people that are being affected too."
Matus filed a civil suit against Cisneros at the Magistrate level but lost. She has also filed a suit in the Supreme Court and is awaiting a court date. Cisneros is originally from Salvador but has lived in Belize for the past 22 years. He employs seven Belizeans. Avelar's area representative Anthony "Boots" Martinez says he asked the Department of Environment to re-assess the situation. For Boots, the solution might be for Cisneros to simply build a higher chimney.
