Email

Print

The Coast Guard is evicting squatters from small islands in Belize’s southern waters, and it's causing a stir. Some of the fishermen who occupy these small islands say they have squatters rights and are being unlawfully ejected.  

That’s what is alleged to have happened one week ago on a shoal that is called “Sanboreâ€￾ area - 16 miles southeast of Placencia, north of the Sapodilla Cayes. We say it is called that because the tiny shoal is too small to even show up as an island on the map - and it is not registered as property at the lands department.  

But, the occupants claim they have been there for 12 years - that is until one week ago when the Coast Guard came in and forcefully evicted them.  One of the occupants got some cell phone footage - until the Coast Guardsmen slapped his camera - phone:

The occupants who are naturalized Belizeans claim they were unlawfully evicted, while the Coast Guard says it had an enforcement notice addressed to each of them.  The notice says that it is government property and they have to move. They were also given 48 hours notice after months of warnings, claims the Coast Guard.  

In a letter from the squatters’ attorney to the Coast Guard, from last year, Dain Denroy Pech claims to have been there for 12 years. The Coast Guard says they have been there three to five years at the most.  

The Coast Guard on the other hand says Pech was squatting and as law enforcement with responsibility for the sea, they are within their rights to eject squatters.

The Coast Guard plans to do this with “fisher camps all across the country where fishers are trying to squat and lay claimâ€￾, end quote. Captain Elton Bennett says the shoal is government property and it will remain unoccupied and is