At the top of our newscast, we told you how the blockade of the sugar industry has been ended. That's after millers, BSI/ASR, finally signed an interim business agreement with the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association. That temporarily ends their latest dispute which led farmers from the BSCFA to set up a blockade of all the entrances and exits to the Tower Hill compound.
This disagreement caused the entire industry to be shut down for several days. But, due to the intervention of the Prime Minister and his team, the two sides entered a sort of wary truce late this evening.
The farmers have removed their trucks, and the industry should restart in a few days. This evening, after the document was signed, and the stand-off was ended, our colleagues from CTV 3 got a chance to speak with Agriculture Minister Jose Abelardo Mai:
Hon. Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Prime Minister took the lead on this matter. I supported him of course being minister of agriculture and we had the support of the ministers in the North. We also had the support of our great friend, Minister Eamon Courtenay who was behind the scenes, but was very influential in the breakthrough. So I thank all of our colleagues in cabinet who I know had been really attentive to what was happening and to the cane farmers, the cane farmers are very hard working people, their frustration levels were high. I think that in the end dialogue paid off."
Reporter
"Any promises had to be made for any of the parties in order for them to be this breakthrough?"
Hon. Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Of course, I think there was some communication was sent to BSCFA indicating that there may be intention for the mill to probably sue for damages caused by this demonstration. But our prime minister made a commitment to the farmers that the government would definitely intervene on this matter and this would not be the case. So that promise was done by the prime minister, the farmers are satisfied. I think that if we are to move forward, we cannot continue in this type of litigation and battling each other. We are in this together, we are joined at the hip here both the miller and the farmers. So, I think that we have to learn to live with each other."
It is expected that the mill's operations should resume in the next few days = once the boilers can be brought back up to speed, and cane deliveries can resume.
As we trace the trajectory of this dispute, we note also the exemplary conduct of the police who did not provoke the cane farmers but simply maintained the peace including through direct mediation from the Commissioner of Police. There had been bloodshed and clashes int he past.
