On February fifteenth, 2008, just eight days after taking office, on February 15th the Ministry of Natural Resources issued letters of caution to fifty-seven land title-holders who had bought property from CHEOP a Caribbean Shores real estate development initiated but not owned by former Area Representative Joe Coye.
Those letters of caution from the Commissioner of Lands put the owners on notice that they could lose their property – which most had paid thirty thousand dollars for. In court, The Solicitor General’s office alleged that the properties had been fraudulently acquired; the political story was that Coye had used his influence as a Minister to get sixty-one lots for four-thousand dollars.
And so, with this cloud of suspicion hanging over it, the CHEOP project has been put on hold since April of 2008 – waiting either for the cautions to be lifted or for government to re-acquire the allegedly fraudulently obtained lands. But nothing happened for ten months until December, when quietly and without fanfare or press release, the cautions were lifted on December twenty-second. We were unable to reach the Lands Commissioner today to find out why the decision was taken.
That’s almost a month ago –which tells Joe Coye that the Ministry has given up on the case which he maintains was baseless. Today, Coye – who is now being cleared on the second allegation of fraudulent land dealings invited the press to the development plot to say that he feels vindicated.
Jose Coye, Former Area Representative
“Of course I feel vindicated Jules. I knew from the outset that there was no such thing as a fraud, no such thing as irregularity; there was not improper about the project and I don’t see how it could have happened if it did. Certainly the titleholders didn’t one day to make any approach to the Lands Department. None of the persons who were involved in this project had to make any contact with the Lands Department. I myself certainly was never at any time involved in any sort of improper dealing with Lands Department. So I found it strange indeed when the caution was placed and the then Commissioner claimed that there was reason to believe there was irregularity or something improper.”
Jules Vasquez,
Do you think it was just a political maneuver?
Jose Coye,
“I have no doubt that prior to the elections when a document was leaked out from the Lands Department, which was in fact an error where they said that 61 lots were sold to me for $4,000. I suspected there and then that that document was given out with the intention to discredit me because no lots were sold to me and there was no such thing as 61 lots for $4,000; that was an error in the document. It was $4,000 each, the word each was left out.”
Jules Vasquez,
Your reputation as a public figure has taken battering first for the allegation of being involved in a suspicious if not fraudulent transaction and then in court, public officers tendered affidavits which portrayed you in a very unbecoming manner; yourself and Minister Marin at the time exerting undue influence on public officers after working hours. The Chief Justice had concluded at the time that, the evidence is of alarm, especially for the proper conduct of public affairs by government officials in the face of what would seem to be impertinent pressure from the political directorate in particular Ministers of government. From this uncontradicted or unrefuted concerning the issuance of these land certificates, the rhetorical question can be asked who in fact abused power.’ How would you respond to that?
Jose Coye,
“If that affidavit would have been rebutted, I think the Chief Justice would have seen it differently. He had to act on an affidavit and the assumption of it not being rebutted, it may have some truth to it, but what was in that affidavit was very untrue and that has been proven today to be untrue.”
Marion Ali, News 5
“Is there anybody you are thinking of taking to court for tarnishing your reputation, your name?”
Jose Coye,
“I want to say this to those people in the government that I do have a great respect for many of them. I would never cast aspersions in a general way at the public service and I would include also members of the political directorate. I happen to know that there are good public officers but there are public officers and I think this is what could be dangerous for our democracy, who at times believe that they want to do what they think the politician wants and they set out to do it, believing that that would favour them. That to me was what created this. I have good reason to believe that this started out because of a particular public officer who was seeking to curry public favour with the new administration.”
The land is about ten acres and Government had originally bought it from the University of Belize. Developers say it has been filled to a meter above sea-level, and if the caution remains lifted streets, water, electricity and landscaping are expected to be put in.
