Tonight, a group of Spanish-speaking Belizeans from the village of San Pablo in the Stann Creek District, are crying foul after they claim someone set their farm on fire. Now to be clear, these 7 families are squatters, who were occupying land that was recently acquired by a company.
That immediately caused a dispute between the two sides because the company owners have a legitimate expectation that they would be able to use the land they purchased for their own purposes. On the other hand, these poor farmers say that they've been living on this land and using it for almost 20 years now.
That was until last week Wednesday, when their corn and plantain fields went up in smoke. We've been following the two sides of the story today, and Daniel Ortiz reports:
Cell phone footage captured of an area on the outskirts of San Pablo Village in the Stann Creek District shows a small farm burning. You'll be able to recognize plantain and corn ablaze.
These crops belonged to a small group of squatters who had been living on this land that is not theirs legally.
Later on, the camera catches a group of men walking through the smoldering flames of what is left of the farm that these squatters were cultivating to feed themselves. In the footage, you see that these people appear to have some interest in the land, but it's clear, that they aren't there to put out the flames.
One of those squatters say that these men were there to forcibly evict them from property that they've been living on and using for - they claim - almost 20 years.
Voice of: Sylvia de Ulloa - Family Crops Burnt
"On Wednesday in the afternoon, there was a fire. But he didn't come to divide the land so that it didn't affect our plants. The fire crossed over, burnt the plantains and corn. My family and I all of us live here. So, we started to put out the fire. So, we called him and asked him why he did that error, because he could kill all our kids. We have 11 kids, and where there is fire, there is smoke. The smoke affects the babies and the children. He came with a machine, and he drove through the corn and plantain trees. He said he came to divide the land so that the fire would stop from burning the rest of the corn and the plantains."
But while that these farmers cry foul for their burnt crops, the company whose land they were occupying is saying that these people refused to cooperate with them, for several months now as they try to resolve the squatting.
The company, A & E Trading Limited, sent us a press which reads, quote, "A &E Trading… purchased a banana farm last April comprised of 2 parcels of land. In rehabilitating the developing the farm, we encountered a family of squatters. Since then, we've been trying to work amicably with them to resolve the situation in line with all the conditions which to be met in the industry, but to no avail. Certain groundless, false, and defamatory allegations have now been made to your media house by them against the owners of the farm, which cause us great concern… We have made every reasonable effort to correct the situation, and are still desirous of doing so for the benefit of all concerned." End quote.
Email
Print