Land Activist Decries Political Promises
Land activist Nigel Petillo has taken to Facebook Live to vent his frustration over what he says is the refusal of the Minister of Natural Resources, Cordel Hyde, works with him now that he is in office. In 2020, Petillo launched a land acquisition movement to try and improve access to land for grassroots people. On one occasion, Petillo organized an initiative in Cotton Tree Village that garnered national attention. At the time, he was also experiencing pushback from authorities and there were times he went into hiding or was detained. This was all under the previous administration when Hyde was in Opposition. When Hyde went public with his support for the movement in July of 2020, Petillo says he was under the impression that if Hyde and the PUP were to form the next government, the movement would gain ground. Well, Hyde and the PUP are now the Government of the day, but Petillo claims the politician who once said he would keep him close and put him to work, is no longer answering his calls and messages. We spoke to Petillo via zoom this morning.
Nigel Petillo
Nigel Petillo, Land Activist
“Dah nuh just bout Cordel, it’s a whole system. It is a whole system in place that has been failing Belizeans in a whole. We only know about two major political parties in this country, PUP and UDP, and it has been back and forth between UDP and PUP Paul. So, we could almost rightly say that the problem of this country is because of the mismanagement between both governments. I dah wah rasta man, and many ah times you would find that wah rasta man nuh mingle up with politics and government and suh because of the way the politicians deh behave. For over and over politicians have been promising us land, of many other things dah one promise they promise us, because they know how many of us cannot afford to buy land. “Imagine the possibilities”, “welcome to the party”, this and that, the best of lines. Well I bought into Cordel lines.”
Paul Lopez
“The criticism is that you laid in bed with a politician and you should have known better, because politicians do what politicians do to win elections.”
Nigel Petillo
“Yeah, and people could, I nuh wah vex with nobody like that fih seh how deh feel. I will accept that, I will take that, because genuinely I believed that he cared. And Cordel sounded like me. When I hear that man talk, he says lots of the phrases I say. I say a lot of the things weh I want hear, weh wih need fih hear and see happen. And, I bought that line and move with that line.”
Paul Lopez
“What is it that you want Belizeans to learn or understand from your experience?”
Nigel Petillo, Land Activist
“Belizeans have been sleeping. We have been depending on the politicians to change our lives. We have been hoping they will come and give wih job, give wih land and change Belize, and we have been seeing back and forth government that that is not the case.”
