150 Residents of Toledo Receive Land Purchase Approvals

Several villagers of Toledo received land papers from the Minister of Natural Resources on Friday. At a ceremony in Toledo West, where Area Representative Oscar Requeña and Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde explained the process for the people.

Cordel Hyde

Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources

“We’ve not been able to help our colleagues in Toledo so much because of the Maya Land Policy issues. And so we try to be creative, try to be as helpful as possible. Our colleague here, our representative here really pushes hard for his people, really fights hard for his people, every week on every single issue imaginable. And so, we found a way for them to get some lands. It’s 138 [of them], I think to start with – 150 and we’re going to get some more for them, but really this was an opportunity for us to formally hand over those purchase approvals. We don’t get to do this often because we have so much work, but, he wanted to do this formally with his people to signal to them that the work is earnest and we’ll do all we can to make sure that as many of them get lands as possible.”

Oscar Requeña

Oscar Requeña, Area Representative, Toledo West

“Today we saw a very diverse cross section of Belizeans, you know, getting their document one step closer. It’s actually the purchase price for them to go in and to pay their purchase price and thereafter they are going to get their title. And, I’m happy that you observed that we have young people, male and female, we have senior citizens. It’s a very diverse cross section of our population and really, many, many of them are really first-time Belizeans. They are going to be first time Belizean landowners. They have not had a piece of land, so they are very excited. They are very happy, you know, to be able to get one step closer to owning a little piece of this jewel.”