Confrontation on Caye Caulker over Public Road Barricades

On Wednesday afternoon, things got heated on Caye Caulker when Chairlady Seleny Villanueva-Pott clashed with a resident over an illegal barricade. Pott and her council members brought in a backhoe to remove the wooden posts blocking a public road. The resident, Wendy Auxillou, who had put up the barricade, tried to stop them, but the police stepped in, and the road was finally reopened to the public. Today, we spoke with Pott, who mentioned that these same barricades were taken down last year but were boldly put back up earlier this week. She also noted that yesterday’s operation cleared two public beach areas and one street area.

 

Seleny Villanueva- Pott, Chairlady, Caye Caulker

“She had created a temporary fence in that area, I believe early last year. She accuses me of saying I sent my staff to take it down. But in reality it was a member of the PUP committee that decided this is a beach access, streets, so we want to open it up to have the golf cart pass. So they removed one of the middle piece out of it. She was out of the island in exile and then she came back and when she came back in full force. She decided that she is going to block the area again. The record we have is that is indeed street and her mom has a license for beautification but it still remains street and should remain open to public access. If you can remember the fire last year, one of the main reason the fire truck could not get in is because on the opposite side where she own has been completely blocked, nothing has happened, she has actually reclaimed the property, reclaim beach and has a nice over the water bar. We have consistently ask her to bring in her document and now she want us to acknowledge that she has title for it. We have been reaching out to natural resources to see what documentation they can share with us. As far as we know, those areas remain queens land and everybody is suppose to have access to queen’s land.”