We also got an opportunity to speak with Ferguson’s political opponent in Stann Creek West about the dispute. Ivan Williams is the UDP standard bearer for that division, and he told us that after studying this issue himself, he has come to learn that the Santa Cruz villagers are actually squatting. Here’s how he explained why:
Ivan Williams - UDP Standard Bearer, Stann Creek West
"What I learnt from the Ministry of Lands they are addressing it in terms of identifying those people who were squatting on it or had farming on it and the whole idea was to make some adjustments in it because if you are a person who have been granted lands and then you find out that people were squatting on the land, then it's a matter of putting the parties together with a view to try to make so much adjustments, to accommodate, to regularize it and I think that is what needs to be happening in this case."
Jules Vasquez
"The people feel that this 1941 acres is taken from their community. What you're saying is they are encroaching on this existing lease?"
Ivan Williams
"That's my understanding and I like to rave with the public that I could recall about a year ago, I approached that village in regards to close to a thousand lots which the Ministry of Natural Resources is looking at in respect to expansion of the village. So as we speak right now, there is close to thousand lots that should be available to the villagers for expansion."
According to Williams, the Ministry of Natural Resources has been trying to work out a fix with the villagers who are on this leased land, but that fix is also causing headaches of its own.
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