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Those living in this community have had to make a life for themselves by learning to endure harsh conditions. Daniel Ortiz reports:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
The squatters on occupying land on Holy Emmanuel Extension, also known as Lake I Boulevard or Chetumal Street South, all live a trying lifestyle.

First of all, they are treated by opponents of their illegal land occupation as "aliens" or illegal Hispanics with no nationality. They produced documents to show that they are either nationalized Belizeans, or are in the process of getting their nationality.

They claim to have children born and raised as Belizeans, and more importantly, raised in the piece of swamp they now occupy.

Secondly, they declare that they are not "just come". Some say they've been living here for a number of years.

Bernarda Riviera - Squatter
"We have been here for many years. Not a few years like what some people would say 'they are just come here, squatters, aliens.' This is way beyond squatting. This is way beyond aliens. We might come from another country, yes, but we are nationalize Belizeans."

Patricia Lopez - Squatter
"We live here for the past 10 years. When I came to live here, everything was swamp. I couldn't even called it land. I just called it a piece of swamp."

Candy Garbutt - Squatter
"I don't know how they would say that this is just overnight. Maybe they didn't see us because we were just hiding in all the tall trees and the bushes here. They didn't see the clearance that we were doing."

The squatters have built their own series of London Bridges, consisting of wooden pallets, not easily traversed, since they quickly start to rot and splinter:

Bernarda Riviera - Squatter
"The struggles that we've been dealing with on a daily basis is our water, our light, no roads, no streets to walk on."

Living in an area that is unpopulated, the squatters say that they had to contend with wild animals, such as a crocodiles, snakes, and bugs.

Bernarda Riviera - Squatter
"We had to chop down trees, deal with ants, deal with snakes, deal with crocodiles, deal with all kinds of insects, doctor flies - all kinds of animals that use to be right there. So many times people would get snakes out of their homes. Because of the swamp you have crocodiles eating people chicken and ducks and stuff like that."

For utilities, water access is basically a public pump with 4 pipes. Each of the 60+ families still living here have to share access, and what they do is to run water hoses from the pipes to their house. Those are their makeshift water mains, and it's not uncommon for impatient members of this community to simply disconnect a neighbor's hose unceremoniously, or simply destroy that neighbor's connection to establish their own.

Bernarda Riviera - Squatter
"Whenever I need water, I need to go out there. The public pump have 4 exits. If it's full, I have to wait my turn. So, we go out there, we connect the hose and we full our barrels, which lasts us for 2-3 days."

For electricity, these people have illegally rigged up their own wires, to high tension wires running by from the city's electricity grid. That's very dangerous to install, and these makeshift electricity routes are mostly likely unsafe. But, that's part of the package, they can't get hooked up legally to get power legally. So, they say that they are "borrowing without permission at this time".

Bernarda Riviera - Squatter
"The light - I will not use the word "thief." I would say that we've been borrowing light. We have to borrow light from the light posts. We have to actually pay somebody to get electricity for us, in order for us to have light, in order for us to have water."

Everybody has their own story as to why they are living in this swamp. Meet Candy Garbutt.

Candy Garbutt - Squatter
"I was homeless. I had three kids and was pregnant and didn't have anywhere to go. When this government came in, in the first term - this is the second term, they gave me a piece of land in Ladyville and some kind of conflict went on with the secretary there and they hired a new secretary and the new secretary removed my name from off of the land that they gave me. And she told me that she and the previous secretary wasn't getting along. So, they disqualified everything she did. And that's how I ended up back here, because my common-law-husband was chopping back here from 2000."

It's far from an acceptable standard of living, and it's a standard of living that most accept. Yet, it's now home for these people, and they will try to protect it

Candy Garbutt - Squatter
"I am willing to go all out for my piece of struggle, my swamp that I struggled hard for - gone through all the swamp, all the hurt. I think I have so much pain in my foot right now, as the weather changes, I feel the pain in my foot because of all the twist and hurt that I got on my foot to trample through these bridges and stomp and all kinds of things. I am willing to go all out for my piece of land. I don't care what all I have to do. I am ready for the GSU and everybody - if they have to come and drag me, broke down my house with me in it - that is what they will have to do, because I will not give up on my hard work and sweat just to give someone else, just because they are the boss?"

We'll keep following the story and observe if that lawsuit does actually make it to court.