Progress brings problems – and when you throw in squatters – those problems carry a capital “P.” And that’s just the case in Belama Phase 4 where just about everyone living there, went there as squatters and we’ve reported before on the primarily immigrant community’s struggle for development. In 2006 Bill Lindo was contracted to fill the land and that has been completed. But part of his $4.5 million contract was to install streets - and that’s where the problem comes in. Some of these residents are being told they are living in the way of progress. Keith Swift has the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Today dozens of dump trucks – like these – loaded with clay were travelling in and out of the Belama Phase 4 area – by the hour. The clay is for roads and some residents say that to make space for those roads – they are being pushed out. That is the story of 28-year-old Elvin Medina.
Elvin Medina, Belama Phase 4 Resident
“That is the way how they love people, that is the way how they love.”
At mid-day we met him and his friends picking up and sorting through what was left of the house he built four years ago. It was completely dismantled – and all that had been inside - was thrown outside.
Elvin Medina,
“When I came this morning I saw that they broke down my house, the broke down the house. Right there my sofa there, I had them good; my wife took care of them real good, clean them every day and all of that you understand me and now those people came and throw it right out of my house, throw it out.
You know when I came I saw them holding it and throw it right out. I feel angry about that. I felt like to do them things when I saw that. My mattress, they tore it. They threw it out of the house and tore it. I saw when they pulled out this little furniture over here, this furniture, the foot was in it. The tore it. They shouldn’t have done all of that.
You see when I built this little house behind here, I was the last house, no house was along this side – only that little grey and pink house over there – that is the only house. And then over here had some barbed wires, all along the way on both sides, and when I brought in my stuff to build my house, I got all scratched up and my wife was pregnant. Sometimes I got real tired and I couldn’t reach way back here because it was so many pieces of board and thing I was bringing. I left them over yander and my wife with the big belly, she goes and pick it up and help me. And now to make this come happen, this is not the way.”
Like most residents living in Belama Phase 4 –Elvin Medina is a squatter. He openly admits it and it is not he doesn’t want a lease or a tile to the land he’s lived on for almost five years. He says he has applied numerous times but has had little progress.
Elvin Medina,
“They just told me it is because it is on the street. But then when I saw Mr. Bill Lindo, he told me the street wouldn’t pass here because he was back here along with Mr. Mark and then they told me the street was going to go over there. And my house was bigger, my house reached all the way to there and then like they told me the street would pass there, I moved my house and put it way over here so I could give the space for the street and now they came and put the street here and broke down my house but they didn’t tell me nothing and they have my address, where the little room I am renting right now, they have the address where I am, and they have a phone number on which they can contact me and nothing like that has happened.”
Keith Swift,
But you realize that you are squatting right?
Elvin Medina,
“Everybody over here just came in the same way like how I came in and then why they will give somebody else and not give me. Everybody is registered in their area. What they told me is that I should register in their area and then they will help me get my piece of land but I never did register, I stay in Pickstock area and that is why they didn’t pay any mind.”
Keith Swift,
But that doesn’t change the fact that you are a squatter.
Elvin Medina,
“Yeah but everybody else too and then everybody they gave papers to and they didn’t give me for the land.”
Mark Green, Belama Phase 4 Resident
“Three days before the general election I received a letter saying that my approval, my request for my lease has been approved but that the paper works will take two to three weeks before I receive my paper works, only to know that this morning when we came behind here and saw that they took down Mr. Medina’s house and then well they had already taken down my frame I had already, when they started to fill they took down my frame and so I could say this doesn’t make any sense.”
But contractor - Bill Lindo - says it does. He says Medina was repeatedly warned that his home was in the way of progress.
Bill Lindo,
“My company has been retained by the government as a contract to reclaim
the are and to put in streets, drains, and culverts – that is the job we have. Three houses are where the streets are supposed to go. There is another case right now, we’ve told them to please move the house, it is right where a street is to go. They refused. They say for us to move the street. Well I am not the government, the government gave me a job and I will do my job. People must have discipline, this is not a free for all and this is our country, this is not their country.”
Keith Swift,
Sir but Mr. Medina is a naturalized Belizean.
Bill Lindo,
“Well I don’t know if he is a Belizean.”
Keith Swift,
Couldn’t it have been done in a better way? This man came here this morning and found his house dismantled.
Bill Lindo,
“That is not true. For the past month and a half we’ve been trying to locate the owner. The house has been completely closed. Every day my workers go and request who is the owner, please tell him he has to move it, he is stopping the road, the road has to go in – they refuse. This morning I told my workers to remove it because it is there illegally and I can’t shut down my job – he is not going to pay me nor my workers nor my bank loan. But this morning as soon as my worker took off the first nail, he appeared. He was there from before eight o’clock. I told him to move his thing because we are going to move the house and he said he is not going to touch anything.”
And so Lindo says his workers moved the house – or more like dismantled it. That has left this father of three – with nowhere to put a lifetime of possessions and his family.
What Bill Lindo alluded to the interview is that Elvin Medina isn’t currently living at the house dismantled this morning. That is because he claims his wife recently gave birth and the area is unsafe for her. But again all his possessions were inside the house. Lindo says about two more houses are in the path of the roadway and those too will have to move. His contract to fill the area is for $4.5 million and it finishes at the end of the month.
