As a media house we know that that the last thing we want to get caught up in is a land dispute - especially one involving rivals and claimants within a single family.
But that's exactly what the entire media was unwittingly flung into on Monday at the Belizeans for justice press conference. That's when the family of Christina Zetina brought their beef to the table sizzling hot. You'll recall that Christina Zetina is the young woman who lost a log after she was shot - and then had to watch as the man accused of shooting her went free in court.
A retrial for the maim charge is pending, and it's going to put the family through what you might call a whole next rigmarole. But their ability to assist their sister is being severely cramped, they say by police harassment in PG.
And that's because they have an ongoing land dispute with Tallyran Savala - a relative and neighbor who owns the land they live on in Jacintoville just outside Punta Gorda Town.
Savala's daughter has been the secretary at the PG police station for the past 20 years and now her relatives say she is using her influence with the police to systematically harass them.
Christina Zetina's mother and sister told the press conference on Monday that they are being chanced and have nowhere left to turn.
Gina Zetina, Complains of Harassment
"The inspector from PG he doesn't want us to go there any at all, he say the next time we go there he will lock us down. Mr. Mariano is the superintendent there. Now we don't have anywhere to go because we are from PG. If we can't go to the police station, who else we can go to? Went to the Ombudsman, they went to internal affair, we went everywhere and no one seems to want to help us."
Linda Sabala, Mother of Christina Zetina
"When they come and harass my brother, gave him a notice to come out of my house because they want to renovate the house, it's my house, I built that house, I got it built."
Of course there are two sides to every story and in this case, three, possibly four.
Superintendent Mariano flatly denied that he chased anyone from the police station. We said, quote, "I can't lock up anyone for coming to the station; the police station is a public place - people have a right to make a report."
He said the police has executed its duties fairly have absolutely not acted on directions from or in defence of the secretary Estelita Jacobs.
Jacobs herself told us she has not meddled with police work in anyway. And, Tallyran Savala who owns the land in dispute told us the title is in his name and he planning to move them from there. He says he has never reported them to police, but other neighbors have because of certain lawless behavior that they practice.
Email
Print