And in one instance, a banana farm is in the middle of the land that was set aside as communal land. In this instance, the minister says that they are looking at this case to see how they can compensate the Mayas:
Dr. Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Ministry of Economic Transformation
"We have a banana farm and some investors within the land that falls within the MLA and how do you deal with that? I mean, the owner of the banana farm may or may not have a loan with a bank, may or may not have other investors in between. It has been creating so many jobs, contributes to Belize's economy, therefore when you see these kinds of investments how do you treat them? There has to be a right that needs to protect them and Belize's constitution and the Caribbean court of justice will respect the right of everyone and so it's just a matter of how, how can both parties compromise in this case MLA, TA and the government of Belize whereby everyone can be satisfied without infringing their rights."
Reporter
"What they've said is in previous instances and they used the Primrose Gabourel case, the government has compensated a party when there are competing titles, why should it not be the same for the Maya?"
Dr. Osmond Martinez
"So, the Caribbean court of justice came in 2015 and I believe that if that is an argument and a case that can be prove that after 2015 any title was issued to a third party then they do have the right to say you know what the government do have the responsibility to compensate wherever there is duplications of title but then we have another scenario what about the scenario where someone got a title from 19 80 something and then the ruling came in 2015."
Reporter
"But does that erase that those lands would have been Maya lands? It doesn't."
Dr. Osmond Martinez
"No but there was a ruling in 2015, before that the government had the freedom because Land falls within the Ministry of Natural Resources and I am not against or in favor I am just objectively looking at it. If there was no ruling then the government had that privilege to say at the moment well we can give the titles and its a legal title that has been given to x person or a population of people whether it was villages or not."
