Activist Nigel Petillo Plans Protest in Front of P.M.’s Office

A protest is being organized for Friday morning in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Belmopan. Activist Nigel Petillo has sent out a call for Belizeans to join him and others in demanding that government reverses the six-point-nine-million-dollar land transaction in Belmopan to construct a new university hospital and to go back to its original plan. That initial plan which was tabled before parliament requires that the hospital be built on U.B. land.  We spoke with Petillo today about the planned protest.

 

Nigel Petillo, Community Activist

“For many times these things happen and all we do is complain and discuss it amongst our peers, spouses our neighbors, but we never really direct it where it needs to be directed. And, in this specific case this has to do with land. This touched me a lot being an activist for almost fifteen years trying to equip poor people with land. It is frustrating to see that the government was able to allocate almost seven million dollars on such a small parcel of land when we could have been doing things like this for a long time now. With seven million dollars I could have almost built a whole village facilitating over a thousand people. Yet when you go to the land department, they tell you there is no land. So, I thought to myself, you know what, I won’t be one of those Belizeans that will just complain. I have always been a man of action. I saw it fit to put together this demonstration. Who come, come. That is how I see it. I can do it by myself. I can go out there and just demonstrate on my own, but I think it is stronger when we have a body of people directing their frustration and anger to the government. Hence the reason why I thought it was very important for us to do a demonstration inviting different members of civil society, individuals, organizations, businesses, anybody who understands the importance of standing up. That is the main reason for this protest.”