And, Briceno says the PM also owes the press and the public a more thorough explanation than the one he gave at the House Meeting 12 days ago. Now, the Forte land deal wasn't exposed yet, and he was commenting on the one involving the Vega’s, the Banos’s and lands on Ramsay Caye. But - to hear Briceno tell it - the PM was blowing everyone off with his dismissal. Â
Hon. John Briceno - Leader of the Opposition
"I place on record our utter dissatisfaction with the prime ministers dismissive comments to the press and ask about the recent revelations of yet another Vega land scheme. I suspect that the prime minister knew all along what was taking place that is why he was trying to dismiss it and try not to answer it and almost gave you like the middle finger to the Belizean people that he is not going to do anything about and he didn't even want to look at the files. It is only because this brave Belizean has decided to challenge the prime minister and this UDP government and to challenge the very powerful Vega family that the prime minister is taking action or else he would have done nothing. Ms. Forte had test done to the documents baring her signature and according to the export her signature was forged. Interestingly the fraudulent conveyance bares the signature of Ms. Darlene Padron, a justice of the peace who worked at the ministry of lands under Vega. We know that is a UDP operative, she has put her name forward to try to represent the UDP both in San Felipe and in Orange Walk south. We know that Gaspar Vega brought in key people in key areas of the ministry. Remember his nephew, he has one as deputy commissioner of lands and one as deputy registrar of lands, two individuals that knew nothing about land and then he brought in Mr. Gillet the daughter of Derrick Gillet who is compadre with Gaspar Vega and he brought in also Darlene Padron and even appointed her as justice of the peace so that they can sign the documents within themselves, they don't have to go outside of the ministry. So then Darlene Padron as the justice of the peace signed that she saw that Amy Fortes signed the land and then that she Amy Forte signed the conveyance to transfer the land to Andre Vega and I can assure you that they have been countless other files that Darlene Padron assigned. We need to investigate all the documents that Darlene Padron, JP signed. It was the same prime minister that gave the directive that Darlene Padron must be removed from the ministry of lands; she is now in the department of environment.
