Mahahual, Q.R. — Dozens of frustrated settlers from Mahahual protested outside government offices Monday after learning of the construction of a new school. The new school, they said, is to be built on the land they currently live on.
The land, which is reported to have been donated to the government for the construction of a new school, is home to dozens of squatters. Residents from the irregular Flamingo settlement took to the office of the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu) in Chetumal in protest.
Angry residents demanded talks as well as the intervention of authorities to regularize the land, since according to at least one protester, that land is considered national territory.
Protester Leticia Lizárraga, a Flamingo resident, said they have gotten wind of the donation of the land for a school. She says she, along with dozens of others, have occupied that land for around six years since it is national land.
“It doesn’t seem fair to us that they want to take it away from us just for the sake of it,” she said adding there are around 300 people that would be affected. “Now they are saying that there are owners.”
Federal Police were sent to the Chetumal building protest Monday since office officials did not appear for talks as requested. The angry group has vowed to resort to “more extreme measures” to be heard.
