Tonight, there is a rift growing in the in the San Jose Palmar Village in the Orange Walk District. It's because of the way that the village's land committee has been distributing lots over the past few months.
It surrounds the appointment of the committee members, which a group of Palmar residents says do not have a proper mandate. They're making wholesale allegations against the committee, but essentially, they're challenging the committee based on this document, signed in October 2001 by the then Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. John Briceno, who is currently the Orange Walk Central area represent. The document supposedly outlines how exactly the appointment of the lands committee should take place.
The group held a press conference today, and here's a short excerpt from the Chairman of the village explaining the challenge:
Village Chairman
"The next group is saying that they will fight it and they are saying that they are already the lands committee but we will not accept that. We are here to say that we are united and if we have to go - I don't know what we will have to do but we will not accept a committee that is appointed or only selected by a small group of people. We will only accept a group - a lands committee elected by the descendants of San Jose Nuevo Palmar."
We'll keep following the story.
