“We Can’t Stand By and Just Watch”, Yemeri Grove Chairman on Land Dispute

Harold Usher, the chairman of Yemeri Grove Village, told News Five in an interview several weeks ago that while some people may view his villagers as aggressive, they cannot simply stand by and watch the residents of Laguna continue to occupy lands in the area under dispute. And, like those residents in Laguna, Chairman Usher is also calling on the Government of Belize to intervene

in the matter.

Harold Usher, Chairman, Yemeri Grove Village

Harold Usher

“We have a lot of youths, we have a lot of young people, we even have some older folks who don’t own a piece of land. My take on it as the chairman of this village I would love and I want to see each and every one of my village who is eighteen years and above own a piece of land for themselves. I believe that the only way that this will be resolved is for the government to step in and for the Ministry of Lands and whosoever in charge to do what they are supposed to do. For me, I must say that sometimes people would think that Yemeri Grove people are aggressive. We are not aggressive; all we are asking is please step in and do what you people are tasked to do. We can’t sit down, we can’t stand by and just watch people coming in, cleaning in, putting in pegs and we just sit back and actually just watch it because then what will happen, within the next month or two or three months, it will be all gone.”