Last night we told you all about the situation in More Tomorrow village - which is right down a road after the Beaver Dam Bridge on the Western Highway.
It's a land dispute - where the villagers are clamoring for one thousand acres that was acquired for their use in 1998.
That happened in mid-1998 - in the waning days of the Esquivel Administration - and though the public acquisition was twice gazette - it seemed that it never made it into the lands record.
And so, the land ended up being privately transacted - which sets the scene for the current dispute.
It was discussed at Cabinet yesterday and this morning the Prime Minister explained how he intends to solve it:
Prime Minister Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"Government is prepared to acquire so much of the 700 acres owned by - I understand - an Indian National - on which the More Tomorrow villagers are located. The Ministry will follow up by on the ground. They want that when they go on the ground, that they be accompanied by at least the elders - or leaders - of the villagers. They want to have a meeting with them beforehand, to explain that while the idea is to satisfy everybody who is cultivating on a parcel in that area, you might end up not getting the parcel on which your cultivation is presently based. We would have to compensate you in the event that you have to move. But, the landowner has to be left with a sufficient parcel that is contiguous, so that he can develop his place. So, there's going to be some bumps along the way, but what is important is that we are committed to doing the acquisition, so that every villager, who's presently engaged in cultivation, can receive title to some parcels. As to what promises were made in the past, I can't speak to those. We are confronted with a problem that must be solved. We will solve it in the best way possible, but it cannot mean that everybody will get everything that he or she wants."
When the plan is prepared, we'll tell you what it looks like...
