Santa Cruz Farmers Up in Arms Over Sold Land
We have been reporting on land dispute in the southern village of Santa Cruz where some thirty farmers are up in arms after they were told that the land they have been cultivating for eight years was sold, reportedly by the government to a private citizen. The farmers say that they have been using the land to plant and grow several products such as pineapple, lime, and plantain. The profits gained from their hard work are invested back into the land for further development and for the farmers to take care of their families. They say that surveyors who have visited the area are telling them to keep away from the land. News Five’s Hipolito Novelo reports.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
Edgar Cruz, a father of ten, is one of thirty farmers in Santa Cruz Village. Cruz and other farmers on Sunday took News Five to their farms, located a short distance at the rear of the village. Several acres of land have been cleared, allowing the farmers to plant. According to Cruz, they began farming in the area about eight years ago. They have no lease or title to the land and two months ago, the farmers got word that the land they had been farming on had been sold.
Edgar Cruz
Edgar Cruz, Farmer, Santa Cruz Village
“We feel a way because we working so hard for eight years when Mr. Melvin Hulse gave us the authority to come and work on the land and told us that it does not have an owner. Now that we are working, we trying for our family and we planted. Now we get the news that the government has sold this land, like four thousand acres. Now we left without. Who going to pay us for the work we have been doing for eight years. We feel like we don’t have ministers or leaders that can help us.”
Each farmer has cultivated about fifteen to twenty acres of farmland which forms part of the larger piece of land which has been sold. For the farmers, taking away their farmlands amounts to stripping them of their livelihoods.
Edgar Cruz
“We plant corn, vegetables. We got oranges, plantain, pineapples. You can see the pineapples, coconuts. We got farming going on but then if we lose this we lose everything. Santa Cruz will no longer have farmers.”
Hipolito Novelo
“You’ll lose your livelihood.”
Edgar Cruz
“That is what I am saying. We lose everything. Our kids, I don’t know where they are going to make farmer because of no other lands here in the south for Santa Cruz. We have an honest living. Here is Santa Cruz you don’t here in the streets doing things. We work hard. We have our children. We need to work for them. It’s really hard for us that we working so hard. Like me here, I have ten kids to maintain and how will I do if I don’t have a farm.”
Hipolito Novelo
“It is not an easy job. Farming is not easy.”
Edgar Cruz
“Not easy because I spend over fifteen thousand dollars on the farm, doing working, chain-sawing, chopping and now they just come and take it away.”
According to Cruz, surveyors are reportedly disallowing the farming access to the land.
Edgar Cruz
“We saw the surveyors, they are turning us back when we go to our farms. They say that they own this property and they don’t want us there.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Who told you that?”
Edgar Cruz
“The white man from Placencia. I don’t know his name but the survey man surveyed right through Georgetown.”
Hipolito Novelo
“He surveyed the entire…?”
Edgar Cruz
“Everything. From the roadside to Mr. Barry Brown down to Georgetown. So we are in a mess, Our lands have been taken away because we are in the middle. So if no one helps us I think we will lose our farms.”
And to prevent that, Cruz had one last plea, a plea that is directed to the Prime Minister.
Edgar Cruz
“We are asking Mr. Dean Barrow to see about Santa Cruz with what is happening because we depend on him. Only he can help us. I just would like to tell the Government of Belize that make they give us a hand on this issue because we need our lands. We can’t fight against the government but we just can tell him that if he doesn’t help us, so why he takes the leadership because we depend on our government and he depends on us because we gave him the vote. It is us who put them there. They should help us.”
Hipolito Novelo, News Five.
