Minister Garcia Tells Laguna and Yemeri Grove Villagers to “Hold It Down”

Dolores Balderamos Garcia

Tensions have been brewing between residents of Laguna and Yemeri Grove villages in Toledo over land ownership and tenure. In March, we reported that villagers in Yemeri Grove and Barranco were fearful that residents in the surrounding communities may be encroaching on lands that belong to them.  They had voiced their concerns publicly. This morning, police had to be called out to defuse tensions between Laguna and Yemeri Grove residents. We spoke with the Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs moments after news broke of the flare-up. Here is what she had to say.

Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs

“We are, we are just being informed that there may be a little contentious situation brewing in the Laguna and Yemeri Grove area. But, I have been in touch with the Commissioner of Police and we, and of course our commissioner, Mr. Greg Choc will be out there to see what we can do about it. But please let me repeat, since it’s, we are on the media, I have asked all parties to stand down to take it easy and to hold it down as we would see in Belize Creole. Hold it down until we can do the demarcation of the boundaries in a way, maybe not, maybe not everybody would like it, but at least there can be compromise and we can do the limitation of boundaries in consultation with neighboring villages, whether it’s Maya or non Maya. I’m a little disappointed because when this came up, , a month ago, over a month ago,  we met with all the parties concerned, the people from Laguna, the people from Yemeri Grove and we pleaded with them to hold things down. So I don’t know why there was some level of misunderstanding or confrontation, you know, but we are going to work on it very carefully.”