WILLEMSTAD.- The Minister of Traffic, Transport and Urban Planning Zita Jesus-Leito explained that the Government will take more actions against the illegal construction of houses in Curaçao. According to the Minister, there are people who have money, but do not have land. Some of them steal land. According to the Minister, this is becoming normal. She believes that the government should do much more against the theft of land and illegal constructions.
“When something like that happens, it’s not good for our country, if a house has been illegally built; it means that the owner does not pay anything to the government.” According to Jesus-Leito, we must try to obtain a way to stop this at the places that have been illegally worked. ‘We are going to charge all the people who have built illegally. They have to pay a number of fines as “user permits”, (a user fee). Because they use a government land and they are not paying anything for it. “
Within this framework, the Minister explained that “for many years in Curaçao we know the real situation, that there are many people on the waiting list, they have been waiting for houses and land for many years.” According to Jesus-Leito, the Government is looking for a solution to this problem. “We are busy dealing with this situation, we are creative in various areas, but we also know that we have to develop a large project, for example: Wechi, but to work on this, money must be available and we are looking for that in all financial ways. That’s so hard to let the illegal construction situation go by without taking action. “Jesus-Leito: “The people who are building illegal homes are not paying anything; we must stop this practice, because all citizens have to pay, so that the government can get enough income.”
