Since Last week Thursday, Belize Rural North Area Representative Edmond Castro has been having a very tough time politically. His lawsuit against Channel 5 and Alvarine Burgess last week was – to put it nicely – very uncomfortable, where he was cross examined on every political scandal he's been involved in while in elected office. Then, he had to sit through several hours of Alvarine Burgess testifying under oath that he took bribes to sign recommendation letters for Asians trying to apply for Belizean Visas.

All this while he has a convention coming up in 11 days, and he must convince the people of Belize Rural North that he is the man to represent the UDP once again as standard bearer.

And tonight, the political pressures keep mounting.

Realtor Emerson Burke wrote a letter, dated May 13 in which he accused Castro of squatting on Lands in Santa Marta Village which he uses to cultivate sugar cane. It's an activity which a number of farmers have been doing for years. Burke categorically states that this activity by Castro and the other farmers has cost his clients millions of dollars in cancelled sale agreements. Burke's letter says, quote, "you are in fact complicit in squatting, an illegal action, and an act (that) the Cabinet has expressed vehemently its zero tolerance toward."

That's a heavy charge to lay against an elected government minister of state, who is held to a higher standard. Today was asked Castro about it when we caught him at another event – one which should have been a pre convention political pedicure but turned into something closer to a political punch fest. Castro explained that he buys cane from farmers who have cultivated in the area. He says he doesn't cultivate it, hence, he isn't squatting. It's a tricky position to take, and so, we pressed him on it and it kinda went downhill from there:

Hon. Edmund Castro - Belize Rural North Area Rep

"Foolishness, almost 98% of the farmers in the Santa Marta area are on some private land. I do not own any private land in Santa Marta, however I do have cane. I have been in the cane business ever since I was about 10 or 12 years old. We had cane in the Carmelita area, it's just a tradition we continue in the business. So Emerson Burke need to seize and desist because then I'm not a man that likes court or know about court. He has no proof that any squatting of land is being done by me or any letter or any paper to show that I have own or claim to own any land in the Santa Marta area."

Reporter

"You say you have cane there."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"We have cane."

Daniel Ortiz

"Under what conditions? What's the situation of the land that the cane sits on. Is it your property? Do you have title for it?"

Hon. Edmund Castro

"No, no, no such thing. I do not own no land in Santa Martin. Man, let Emerson Burke bring his proof that I am squatting on his land."

Daniel Ortiz

"You are not squatting on his land, you are squatting on land of his client."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"The entire half of Maskall is privately owned. It's the same thing, I am not squatting on no land, for Emerson or his client."

Daniel Ortiz

"If it's privately owned then squatting is taking place sir."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"I never claimed I was squatting on any land."

Daniel Ortiz

"Do you or do you not have lands right now cultivated with sugar cane in Santa Marta?"

Hon. Edmund Castro

"I have some cane in Santa Marta."

Daniel Ortiz

"And do you own the land that the cane is currently on?"

Hon. Edmund Castro

"My friend, the cane that I have in Santa Marta, is cane I bought from people that had those cane there in Santa Marta."

Daniel Ortiz

"Sir, you just told us that you cultivate cane in that area."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"I said we have cane that I had bought from some people in Santa Marta, yes."

Daniel Ortiz

"But you just said you cultivate cane in the area and therefore because you don't own the land, you're squatting which is illegal and this gentleman says you should be held at a higher standard as a minister, as an area representative."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"My friend, I don't know what Emerson Burke is talking about. Emerson Burke will have to come and show me what land he is talking about. I do have some cane that I had bought from some people in Santa Marta. I don't own no land in Santa Marta."

Daniel Ortiz

"So you don't cultivate either, you buy?"

Hon. Edmund Castro

"I had some cane that I had bought some people in Santa Marta."

Daniel Ortiz

"Has this issue been brought to your attention before?"

Hon. Edmund Castro

"I know Emerson Burke came to me, maybe a year ago and he wanted to sell some land which encompasses about half the village of Maskall it contains about 6 or so thousand acres of land."

Daniel Ortiz

"Haven't you been informed that farmers are squatting on this parcel of property?"

Hon. Edmund Castro

"If that's the section he's talking about, I would say almost all the farmers in the Maskall area, all the way down are on those lands 20, 30, 40 years as long as I can recall."

Daniel Ortiz

"And he says that the government has expressed no interests to acquire that land publicly to distribute to those farmers - therefore those farmers need to move as well."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"Then he needs to take that up with those farmers. Those people have been living, have houses on those lands in Maskall all the way down for as long as I've known them. So it's something probably that government would have to - half of Maskall from where the school is in Maskall all the way down. Those are the land that I think is in question."

Reporter

"You purchase cane but you don't purchase the land, do other people own that land?"

Hon. Edmund Castro

"None of the farmers, I would go as far as saying none of the farmers or very little of them who have 100 of acres of cane own those lands. They have been cultivating those lands for 40 years, so if I buy a patch of cane from them, I buy the patch of cane, I can't buy the land because they have no title or paper for the land."

Reporter

"So the accusations that Mr. Burke is making that you are basically participating in the illegal actively that these individuals."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"There's no such participation in no illegal nothing."

Daniel Ortiz

"But sir, they squatted and you go and buy their canes."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"No, no, no. Yes sir, I purchase a patch of cane from them,"

Daniel Ortiz

"Which is illegally cultivated."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"(Sigh) Man."

Daniel Ortiz

"That's the position sir."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"What we need to do is to go and try to make Emerson deal with the 100 of farmers and shut them down and tell them that as of such a date, they cannot go on the land and cultivate or take care of their cane. If Emerson wants the patch of cane, he can have it."

Reporter

"Because he has rights to it."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"But he can take it, but he can take it, that's not a fuss. It's his, take it! Eat it! Do what you want with it!"

Daniel Ortiz

"But sir you're making it sound as though he's in a wrong for wanting to claim rights to this."

Hon. Edmund Castro

"There is no wrong, you are trying to pin it one me and then I am saying the entire part of the constituency that grows vegetables are on that plot of land."

As you heard in the interview, Castro asserts that there are many farmers – "hundreds of farmers" in his words – who have been squatting on private land and cultivating it in Belize Rural North. That sounds like social unrest just waiting to happen once those private land owners start claiming their property. That's the very same position that Castro has on this issue. He told us that the farmers are willing to purchase the land from Burke's clients, if they are made a reasonable offer:

Hon. Edmund Castro

"The patch of cane I have in Santa Marta on his land, he can take it. He can take it, he doesn't even have to give me any compensation for it, right. Those people have been on those lands for umpteen years. I helped him to gather the people together because they are willing and preparing to pay. The don't want to beat it! They want to pay for it, where else will they go and grow their cane? Where else will the farmers in Bomba and Maskall go and grow their vegetables - to take to the market?"

Daniel Ortiz

"Sir how do you balance that with the interest of the land owner who has millions of dollars?"

Hon. Edmund Castro

"It's very simple, the farmers in the Maskall and Bomba area, all the way to Santa Marta would like to sit down and I had tried to put them together so that they can work out what it would take for them to own the piece of land. If the land owner so deserves of selling them the piece of land they have been cultivating for umpteen years. I don't see nothing wrong with that - as a representative of the people I tried to put that meeting together with Emerson, only to find out that he have ulterior motives. So that's why I said he is a crazy man because I even got in touch with Eludio Aragon to go and represent your people and see how you can best fight for the people in the Santa Marta area. Because if those people can't grow their cane tomorrow, we will have riot up there. If they can't go to their cane field tomorrow, we will have riot up there."

Castro has offered to take the press to the lands in question to speak with farmers who are cultivating on property they don't own. Again, he asserts that he is not squatting on lands in Santa Marta; he only buys cane from farmers who have cultivated on land they don't own.