Today, 6 residents from a place called Boom Creek Village in the Toledo District made the long bus ride to Belize City to tell us that they fear they'll be evicted from the properties their families have called home for generations. Boom Creek is home to 23 families with 130 members on four thousand acres of land. Residents use those lands to do subsistence farming of corn and rice. But last year a surveyor appeared on those lands. Since then, the residents of Boom Creek have been trying to get someone to tell them what's going on. They still haven't gotten answers and today they brought their story to us.
These men from Boom Creek Village came to the city by bus this morning to our office and tell us that they fear the land just outside of Punta Gorda that that they have occupied for generations will be gobbled up by private owners and the man they say is selling them out is their area representative Mike Espat. 19-year-old Israel Sanchez explains.
Israel Sanchez,
"My problem is that our representative Mr. Mike Espat is giving away our land."
Jules Vasquez,
Is this your land, do you have a title for this land?
Israel Sanchez,
"No sir but we have the right to our land, that is in the village boundary and we use that for farming, we use that for other things like we have a concession there."
Jules Vasquez,
But you realize that if you don't have title for the land, you don't own the land?
Israel Sanchez,
"I know that but then he should have consulted because in the Village Council Act, it states that any Ministry or any Minister that wants to do something in the village has to consult the Chairman and the village council first and he did not do that."
Jules Vasquez,
How long have you all been occupying this land?
Resident #2,
"From since I was born. I was born in the place and I have fifty three years old and I know Mr. Mike from I was small, very small. Me and him almost grew up together and now I see him doing this, that is not fair because the land is for our kids."
Jules Vasquez,
Why would Mr. Mike do this to you all, are you all UDPs? Did you all campaign against him? Is there something like that happening?
Resident #3,
"We are not against Mr. Mike, we voted for him, we are PUPS, but I don't know why he is doing this for us. I went to his office personally because I used to be an alcalde and I am the Chairman now. So I went to his office and I talked to him about this problem and he told me that we are not a village."
Resident #2,
"He knows me, he knows my whole family. From me to my kids are PUP but I guess the P has no value, the land is what is valuable to him, it is not the people."
Resident #4,
"I just want him to consult, try to meet with the village and explain what is happening because the village is getting fed up with this and I just want him to come and meet with the village."
Jules Vasquez,
So are you afraid that one day you'll wake up and a man will come and say you are on my land?
Resident #2,
"Exactly, maybe they'll come and sell my house too, where I live and I'll have to come out. This thing happened in different countries, not only here, and you see in Guatemala they bulldozed people's houses and they have to leave and that is the reason why we don't want this in Belize because we have laws and a democratic government of Belize."
And while they call it a village, the fact is that there are too few residents in Boom Creek to make it qualify as village; with 130 people, it only qualifies as a community. We were unable to reach their area representative Mike Espat for comment, but hope to do so tomorrow.
