Tourism Minister Surprised by Coco Beach Resort Stop Order
Two days ago the Department of Environment issued a stop order to the plush Coco Beach Resort to cease and desist all operations and construction on its 6 projects in north San Pedro. It was issued as a result of non compliance by the resort’s developers. There was no Environmental Compliance Plan for any of the resort’s six projects and so the DOE made the decision to move on Coco Beach. But yesterday the Minister of Tourism and Area Representative Manuel Heredia Jr. told us that it was a bad decision to shut down construction and operations at the mega resort. He says that yes – Coco Beach isn’t in compliance – but it could have been handled differently.
Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism: “I was taken by surprise when I heard that a stop order was issued not only to Coco Beach but to four or five other places. But I will tell you truthfully that immediately when I spoke to Mr. Allegria, he agreed that the best thing is to meet with these and have everything addressed and move forward. So definitely if anything was closed, it was probably about an hour or hour and a half before Mr. Allegria got in touch with his people and this morning they were back to work as normal.”
Keith Swift, “Who made the decision of the DOE?”
Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.: “Well the way I understand it, it was really the Chief Environmental Officer who is Mr. Allegria. He is the one that gave the directive and then I am sure that other Ministers called on that because to me the construction part is not that difficult but to cease all operations, even of the resorts, that part is terrible because that will really send a wrong message.”
Keith Swift: “So was it a mistake to issue that stop order?”
Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.: “Well I think it was a mistake or an oversight. I must agree to that but as humans all of us do our little mistakes here and there but the important thing is that we have agreed to meet tonight and to resolve the issue.”
Chief Environmental Officer Martin Allegria along with representatives from Coco Beach and Minister Heredia met last night at his office in San Pedro. Source: 7 News Belize
What was the resolution of the meeting between CEO Martin Allegria and Coco Beach representatives?
Thank you for your comment Ken. I have not heard anymore about this issue, but will follow up with it if I can.