This morning, the Toledo Land and Lease Owners - a fairly new organization - were guests on Sunup on 7. The group was formed to protect the interests of those who own private property in Toledo as the government works to implement the CCJ consent order which will recognize communal land rights.
Two members of the group - Lisel Alamilla and Andy Johnson - explained that they believe their rights - and their property - are in danger with the current draft proposal.
Lisel Alamilla, Toledo Land and Lease Owners
"The idea is to kind of mobilize people to say, we're here, start coming out, start participating because we have public meetings where we give them updates and whenever we have something significant to share with them, we share it with them. We are a volunteer organization and our monies we raised through people's donation, as little as $10 coming from people from very far villages. And we've been able to retain an attorney to review the draft legislation and to advise us on what the impact of that bill would be if it were to go through as is."
"You could have that lease or title for 65 years, doesn't matter, this bill is saying that those titles and leases will automatically be extinguished."
Host:
The constitution would say you have to be adequately compensation so I know how it works that the market value will be compensated back to you so that would probably include your investments and things like that. However, in lieu of money, another piece of land of that same…
Andy Johnson, Toledo Land and Lease Owners
"But we don't want to live anywhere else."
"Just vaguely I would say the bill seeks to protect Maya Land Tenure and it does exactly that with no regard for other ethnic groups in Toledo. We have East Indian, we have Creole, we have Garifuna people and including some of our members are members of CARICOM and we have Canadian and US expats that reside there and have investments there. And it takes a toll because never before have you had a medium through which you could seek protection or come to and that's why we exist, we advocate for the protection of private and lease landowners in regards to this bill."
Sunup repeats at 8:00 tonight on Channel 7.
