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But, Borja didn't only have a small armory of guns – he was primarily a land consultant. In posthumously released recordings he has made allegations of major land fraud schemes involving private realtors, law firm employees and public officers.
We asked the Prime Minister about lack of regulation generally in the real estate sector – and specifically corruption that Borja's recordings allege:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"When I was the minister of of Natural Resources, we were working on legislation for the real estate industry. You could ask Hugo and he can confirm. I had several meetings with him. And just at the point that we were about to introduce the legislation. Then I resigned as the Minister of Environment and unfortunately nobody followed it up and I, also have to take some kind of responsibility to be that. I have not sat down with the Minister of Natural Resources, with Minister Hyde to tell him, you know, this is one of the areas that has to be addressed. But now that that has surfaced. It is the best opportunity of our time to to say, hey, we need to address this, and we need to address it now."
Reporter:
"Then at this whole investigation regarding Ricardo Borja and what has surfaced in testimonies he supposedly gave before his death, that a real estate company down south was involved at least one agent in untoward activity. And he named four people within the Ministry of Natural Resources as facilitating this land scam. Is there an investigation ongoing in relation to that?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"But certainly I have not spoken with the commissioner of Police. I was unable to speak to him yet, but and then also been working on on this investment summit. But I would certainly sit down with him. I would sit down with the minister of of natural resources; the deputy prime minister. And we need to take action."
"We need to if there is any allegations made against any individual and in government, we need to be able to act so that that the public can see that we are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior. And also that the public officers understand that if they are not following the law, that they also have to be held responsible."
