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Nigel Petillo - President, BGYEA (Via Phone)
"Jules, I'll be honest with you, it's not surprise to me that the Belizean people didn't come out there physically. Disappointed, yes, you can say that I am disappointed, but I'll be honest - in fact let me tell you what disappoint me the most. It's the same people who you are fighting for, Jules, the same grassroots poor people who you are trying to open their eyes to make them realize that only when political parties want something from you, they will send that money, mobilize you, feed you, and give you small pocket money for the day. This just tells me that our people, once again, don't get it. Our people have missed it again. In fact, BGYEA members, it is disappointment to see that the same people who you are fighting for, the same people who call me every day and night - Nigel, I haven't gotten my papers as yet. Nigel, I went to try to pay at the Lands Department, and they didn't accept my payment. Nigel, they said that my name wasn't in the system. Nigel, when will I get a piece of land? Those are the same people who we are fighting out there for, not for any personal gain, because you don't vote for us. You all don't give us any money. You all don't pay our bills. We were just trying to stand with you, for you. But once again, you all failed yourself. You fail your children. You failed your country. You failed the future of Belize, and you all once again gave the politicians strength because they believe that they are in total control. Only when the red tells you to move, you want to move, and the same thing with the blue. I realize now that our people are weak; our people are cowards. Our people need to stand their grounds and understand that if you don't fight today, you won't have anything to fight for tomorrow. So, don't try to think you all will pass on this fight to the future generations, and your little kids. You all act like you so love your children, it's now that you need to fight. Yes Jules, numbers, to the politicians, if it's only 200 people who are complaining for land in this country, then we don't have a problem for land. That's how they are going to have it look. Once again, the Belizean people are scared of the politicians. The politicians designed it that way. You who are waiting for the politicians to give you something a long time, are afraid to do something because you believe that you will never get any. So, yesterday's demonstration, to me, was still a success. To the politicians, yes, they will say that only 3 or 4 people were out there, but at the end of the day, we had representatives from different parts of the country."

And while Petillo is down - those friendly to government - who see him as an adversary have launched a mild counter-offensive. They've circulated a document which shows 31 lots in Harmonyville awarded to relatives of Petillo and other BGYEA Executive members. Today we asked him about this:

Jules Vasquez
"They have circulated a list of 31 names, they say, that are your relatives, who you have given land in Harmonyville. This is a list of 31 persons, 20 of them are, they allege, relatives of yours. And Elute Hall has a number, they claim, that a number of his people are on the list as well. They say that you've given your siblings, Charleton Petillo, Jason Petillo, Steven Petillo, Glen Petillo, your wife, your mother, your father, and a number of in-laws by the name of Vanzie, Ochoa, Guzman. The list goes on. You have any response to that?"

Nigel Petillo
"If we were trying ot hide that, Jules, if you notice, all those names are on the list, right. It wasn't anything that we were trying to hide. These are deserving Belizeans as well. We didn't give them any better price than nobody else. They all paid their survey fees, they all paid their contributions, and they will all have to pay their thousand dollars at Lands Department. Every single one of them got 1 acre, or less than an acre. Nobody got more than 1 acre. So, no special preference was there. If Gaspar Vega or the people from Lands Department want to give things to their family members, we don't see anything wrong with that. The issue we have with that is when they sell it for $1.10, or when you under-price it period. So, there is nothing wrong with what we did. My brothers are deserving of land. My mother never owned a piece of land in this country before, and she is 54 years-old. So what's wrong with her owning a piece of land? What's wrong with Elute wanting to make sure that his family members got land. There was no way that they could get land before. We don't know Gaspar Vega; we don't know anybody at Lands Department who can go and say, 'Here's what's happening. I don't know when I will have a form, but maybe you can set aside a 10 acres for me. Jules, I don't see why they are making a big issue out of it. And how much did they say, 20 people out of 1000 people? That;s 1000 people who are complete strangers to us, maybe 20 people are my family. If it's more than 8 members are my direct family, then I could understand that. All the rest are in-laws. So I don't see anything with what we did."

Jules Vasquez
"You sound, a little bit like the Minister of Natural Resources, when he said that he works hard, that his family works hard, and that they are entitled to pieces."

Nigel Petillo
"We never said anything about who work harder than who. I said that they are Belizeans, and they are entitled to land. We didn't do anything that we hid. We were never afaid to give them the land in their names. They applied, and they are deserving of it. They didn't get any special treatment."

Petillo says he's going to take a short break - but will strike up again shortly with his advocacy activities.