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Laguna and Yemeri, they're the Toledo district villages embroiled in a cross-cultural land dispute that many fear could turn violent.
It's a situation that the media as well as the Ministries of Natural Resources and Indigenous Affairs are keeping a close eye on while working for an amicable solution.
Last week, we took you there when Courtney Menzies went south but in the last two days I got the different takes of both Ministers concerned. Here's what they told me about this southern land dispute that just has to end.
Laguna and Yemeri, they're the rival southern villages that have been jostling for land for more than a generation. 7 News has been down there twice in the last 6 months sifting through tensions to try and get to the heart of the dispute but that's a difficult task because the villagers have two completely different methods and traditions for determining who the land in dispute truly belongs to.
It means that this land issue is much more complex than it seems and that's because of the human element in the fight. And yesterday when we caught up with Minister of Natural Resources Cordel Hyde we asked him what if anything his Ministry was doing to squash the tension.
Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Lands
"The truth of the matter is it has to be a whole legislation land on that mayan communal land ruling there has to be legislation and it's a process, you have to go through to get to that, as much as you want to expand your village and you want to demarcate and all that you have neighbors so you have to function within that environment, um, you can't make your right wrong and you can't make your wrong right but it's for us to sit down and try to work through the issues like forget the personalities mien let us just sit down and deal with the issues at hand and find a way, there has to be a way mein because this thing threatens to really explode in Toledo right, people are on edge and there are people who come with clean hands and come with clean hearts and there are others who may not so it's for us to try to get together and figure out how we get this done in the shortest possible time"
But that's a tall order and one that won't be accomplished without the Minister responsible for Human Development and Indigenous Affairs Dolores Balderamos Garcia. She says that in the end the government will have to gently guide this touchy issue to an amicable resolution.
Dolores Balderamos, Minister of Human Development
"The customary practice of the Maya people it sort of bumps up against other realities on the ground, one of them is the governments view in terms of a verification process of what we call the auto-delimitation and it's going to be so necessary for us to sit down and see where, when one bumps up against the other one, where we can resolve it. We don't have a problem in the center of your village dealing with the land in the customary way but in the issue of Laguna and Yemeri Grove we have a disputed boundary or maybe you could say that the boundary of the Maya customary land has not actually been set yet and so the government has to assert it's authority over all land in Belize. We try to do it in a respectful way because we don't want further tension. We did not believe that it was a good thing for Mr. Herald Usher and his people to go out there and pull up anything and like I said at the previous press conference we are not but where one practice bumps up against another reality of the government having to take responsibility for all land in Belize. But the government needs to assert it's authority and I go back to what Cordel said yesterday that it is so necessary for us to sit down and talk and for the government to play a mediation role."
And while that is the hope the reality seems to be that both Ministers are still wringing their hands and hoping for a solution that they know will be hard won.
Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Lands
"People will have different options at the end of the day it's for the majority of this nation to understand what is at stake, what is required, what is the responsibility of the government, what is the responsibility of all parties involved as long as there is this court judgement, we have to figure that out. We have a ministry that is designated primarily for this issue you know a ministry and a team of people who are dealing with this issue, those, that is the Minister that is the team that the mayans and the surrounding communities have to sit with and work through things and focus on that don't listen to the noise at the market don't listen to all the confusion. Focus on what's at hand and what we are trying to sort out we had the FPIC protocol we have been able to get that done, we have been able to get some agreements on a multitude of social infrastructure projects for these communities, that is working, it's not perfect but it's working, now it's for us to get the legislation that will actually codify this communal Maya land ruling and get it right."
We'll keep following this story.
