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It has been a day of terrible reckoning in northern Belize. One man is dead and at least four more are injured – all the result of afternoon clashes between the police and cane farmers. We’ll have it all for you tonight – but we ask your patience as our team is trying to get back in from Orange Walk where they have basically been held in by police who have taken control of and closed down the Northern Highway at the Tower Hill Bridge.

At this hour the police riot squad is sweeping forward on the Northern Highway as cane farmers are still lighting fires and throwing stones – and out team is basically stuck on the side of the cane farmers. Though we have made appeals to the Commander of Operations, our team has not been let though to get to other side of the bridge – from where they can head to Belize City. As soon as they arrive, we’ll show you the images, interviews and stories they have gathered since 3:30 this afternoon.

All this is the awful culmination of a strike which started seven days ago and came to a head very early this morning – before dawn - when the cane farmers basically locked off Northern Belize, by obstructing all points beyond the Tower Hill Bridge. As we said, we will have it all for you tonight, but we begin where it all began, early this morning. Our team was the first Belize City media on the scene and here’s how it all started.

Jules Vasquez Reporting,
3 cane trucks were parked on the north and south sides of the Tower Hill Bridge – with a police mobile trapped in between them – not able to move in either direction. And the sign on one of the truck says it all: Take Away the Core Sampler, Take Away Nemencio Acosta who is Chairman of the Sugar Industry Control board and Take Away John Gillette who is the BSI factory manager.

The tone was militant but the mood was cool as both the police and the farmers were calm, keeping their distance with neither side escalating. Thousands of stranded commuters were caught in the middle of their uneasy truce.

About 8 miles away it wasn’t so cool. The junction of the San Estevan Honey Camp Road – which is the only route that can cut past the Tower Hill Bridge – the scene was more threatening as burning tires blocked the roads and a number of busses were stranded. Again over 100 cane farmers stood around keeping the fires burning and waiting for the police to respond.

It was more or less the same at mile 58 on the Northern Highway, an area known as Indian Hill. Farmers sat coolly on the road as tire fires rages behind them. Students who got an impromptu holiday because they couldn’t go to school stood around to watch the action. And standing by and watching is what most did this morning. There was no confrontation with police – no compromise.

And the man to whom all the farmers are looking is their CEO Carlos Magana. He went to the bridge to ask his members to let him pass so that he could attend a meeting with the Prime Minister in Belize City – but they were bitterly opposed to that.

Carlos Magana Back and Forth with Farmers
[Why don’t the cane farmers agree that Magana can go to Belize City to negotiate because they have not faulted the cane farmers at all. They are already at the point where they can arrive at a resolution to the problem. The Prime Minister only wants a few explanations for them to go to Belize and Magana says the people need to have confidence in their management because they have not lied to them.

If we the cane farmers don’t move, he will have to use forces ofthe country [and there is a back and forth with the cane farmers who say they are ready to do that.]

Carlos Magana, CEO – Cane Farmers Association
“As you see, you are a witness that we are trying to bring them to an understanding and that this is what we really wanted the government to understand, that once it gets out of the hands of management, it is a different story.”

Jules Vasquez,
Is this basically right now rule by mob?

Carlos Magana,
“Yeah it is. We are going to defend their request. We want Belize to defend their request and that is what we are trying to see if we can achieve. But as you know, as you have seen, it is very difficult.”

Jules Vasquez,
Now the Prime Minister has indicated that he will not send the police or the BDF to engage with them today.

Carlos Magana,
“Well I won’t want to say up to today. He has given us a time and that is until this afternoon and we are trying to see if we can negotiate that and I really hope that we reach that negotiation and it is for the interest of the country. I don’t think that any party, neither the government or the cane farmers would want to see ourselves engage in any civil unrest.”

Jules Vasquez,
But at this time there is no compromise because the compromise is that we don’t use it this season, the core sampler, and it is just used for data and then it be held off for two more years. But these people are saying to remove totally.

Carlos Magana,
“I think at the initial stage that could have been a possibility but as you have heard and you are seeing it, it is an absolute no to the core sampler and we have three points of individuals. I don’t know if you have gone to the three different places and we have approximately more than 4,000 cane farmers involved in this now. So please, I am calling on the authorities to take this as a consideration. It is something that is requested by them and they have understood the social impact that it can have if they are continued being paid by quality.”

Jules Vasquez,
Sir, you can’t attend the meeting, they are not remove it, we are on path for a head on collision here.

Carlos Magana,
“Yeah that is what it seems and I would really pray to God that it doesn’t happen.”

Cane Farmer #1,
“We are asking him to come here and finish this problem. It is nothing more than his presence that can terminate all of this problem here. We the farmers are very calm. If he is coming we will open for him to come cross and negotiate with the farmers. It is not a problem. This is just the voice of the people that is taking place now and he should understand that.”

Such militance and hardened resolve could be seen on the faces of all these farmers today: they are eyeball to eyeball with the Government of Belize – and they have take a third of the country hostage without blinking: it’s is now government’s move and that move will likely have to be made with force.

And while Magana was talking to the Prime Minister, his ultimatum was that if Magana did not make it to a meeting at Central Bank by noon, he would have a press conference to unveil government’s position. It is basically, that a compromise was offered on Friday to no longer use the controversial core sampler to determine payments for this season; it would still however be used to collect data. That was agreed to in a meeting with the cane farmers, but by the time the message got outside it was either rejected or aborted.