In 2010 - BGYEA - the Belize Grassroots Youth Empowerment Association made history with an ad-hoc land redistribution program. They called it the Central American model - doing the same thing migrants did when they came here: see a piece of land, squat on it and then claim it. That was the plan - but it worked out even better than that - when a young Barrow administration was forced to give in to their demands and make the land available to 800 first time landowners for an available price.
They made history, but in its aftermath things are never as smooth as you might imagine - things fall apart, even for the victors.
And yesterday the public got to fill in the blanks when Nigel Petillo went live on Facebook to get something off his chest involving the organization.
BGYEA blazed onto the scene in 2009 with a radical and pioneering idea, a land grab for 800 first time Belizean land owners:
June 15th 2010
Nigel Petillo, President - BGYEA
"It's becoming a reality. We have the 800 names list."
And it worked. By wielding the force of popular appeal in a country all too familiar with inequity in land distribution, they got the government of Belize to agree to an unprecedented arrangement.
April 7th 2010
Indira Craig
"According to Petillo who spoke to us via phone this afternoon, he met with Prime Minister Dean Barrow today and they have agreed on a way forward. He says the Prime Minister has agreed to have Petillo and his group to oversee the distribution of lands and basically organize what will be an agricultural community."
Jan 23rd 2010
Nigel Petillo, President BGYEA
"I am proud to announce that we met with the government last week; we discussed the issuing of land documents and the price that each individual will be required to pay for their land to become property. The government has indicated that they are prepared to facilitate, phases 1 and 2 which have been approved out of the six phases in all."
BGYEA has put lighting in a bottle - they got the government to agree to an unprecedented arrangement - uncomplicated, egalitarian land distribution for regular folks.
But, land is power and they do say that all power corrupts...and some years later dis-harmony entered the Harmonyville equation, and Nigel Petillo was exiled. And now after years of mumbling that he had been booted from the brotherhood, it finally became clear with this live fb yesterday:
Nigel Petillo, Former BGYEA President
"Yes I left the organization about three, four years ago I left the organization because I was being attacked by one individual namely and when I noticed the rest of the guys in group were not speaking up I decided you know what silence says a lot. I decided to leave. I left the organization I told the guys here, see Harmonyville and BGYEA I'm not the president anymore I've done my part i'm moving on."
"I will repeat to you again BGYEA, Harmonyville does not belong to any individual or no group, period. None of those guys who claim to be the board members they don't own BGYEA in fact they don't even live in Harmonyville."
"I'm tired of it. I'm fed up. I'm living beside a man who hates me. I'm living beside someone who hopes to see me dead. See what I tell you and these are the type of people who I have been pushing because they don't have it naturally like me this wasn't their idea. this idea of Harmonyville was my idea it was me who went out there."
Petillo says he will continue to work towards his vision independently. But his former second in command, David Barnett made a wry comment on a post discussing Petillo's departure from BGYEA. He shared it with this caption.
"It is what it is. You play with puppy, puppy lick yo mouth. Lot a thing people take it fi joke. This life is not a game. Careful how you seek fame"
Petillo still lives in Harmonyville but affirms his detachment from the BGYEA since 2020.
