Nearly six years after a controversial 1,910-acre national land transfer to private developer Fowler Works Enterprises, Belize’s Court of Appeal has upheld the legality of the deal, leaving generations of local farmers and Santa Familia residents in limbo and taxpayers on the hook for a potential $10 million payout.
The 2020 sale, closed just 20 days before that year’s general elections, has been the center of a bitter legal and community battle ever since Cayo Northeast Area Representative Orlando Habet uncovered the agreement shortly after taking office. Habet, who has repeatedly advocated for the multi-generational resident claimants who have lived and worked the land for up to 40 years, expressed profound disappointment following the appellate court’s ruling.
According to court documents, the deal was halted by the new administration after the 2020 election transition, when officials refused to transfer full land titles to Fowler Works Enterprises. The Court of Appeal’s ruling this week confirmed that the original sale agreements are legally binding, and that the incoming government breached the contracts by pausing the transfer. The case will now return to the High Court to finalize damage payments to the developer, with estimates putting the public liability at $10 million – a cost that will fall directly to national taxpayers.
In an on-the-record interview following the ruling, Habet questioned the legitimacy of the entire transaction, arguing that the developer has never even visited the parcel of land that is currently home to dozens of established local farming families. “Most of this land has been occupied by the people of Santa Familia for thirty, forty years. Some of them got it handed over from their parents to the son,” Habet explained. He added, “I don’t even think he knows where the land is. He has never put foot on the land. He won’t put foot on that land if you have forty fifty local farmers with their land there.”
Fowler Works Enterprises was represented in the appellate proceedings by prominent legal team Senior Counsel Dean Barrow and attorney Agassi Finnegan. No public statement has been issued by the developer or its legal team following the ruling. For the Santa Familia families who have called the land home for generations, the legal outcome does not resolve the deeply personal fight over their homes and livelihoods, leaving the future of the community uncertain as the damages process moves forward.
This report is adapted from a transcript of a televised evening news broadcast.