On Sunday, March 16, 2008, an article was published in the Amandala entitled “Cane Farmers suffering because of waiting-in-line system.” The following is a reproduction of a conversation I had with Mr. Felipe Tzul. “The Tower Hill Sugar Factory only has the capacity to receive six thousand tons of cane per day since 1968. Cane Farmers complain that after burning, cutting and loading the truck with the product, the Sugar Factory should receive it within 36 hours. But most of the time they, the Cane Farmers, have to stay outside in a line with their trucks for a very long time. On many of these occasions they have to sleep out there under their trucks. It is not an easy task. Mr. Felipe Tzul was explaining to me that after the cane is burnt (in the fields) and it is not received at the factory before 72 hours, the sugar cane decreases in quality, and it loses its value. This old practice doesn’t benefit the cane farmers anymore, because they lose financially. The cost of operation is very high, so much so that for this 2008, fertilizers went up from $64.50 to $93.25 for a 100-pound sack. If the sugar company would receive the farmers’ product in time, it would return more economic benefits for the cane farmers. Mr. Felipe Tzul suggests that the season for receiving sugar cane should be from January to May, because, he claims the TC/TS (Tons of cane for tons of sugar) is in its precise moment to harvest and deliver. Probably our Belizean sugar company should look at this system, which is the practice in the Spanish-speaking Central American countries, where factories have the capacity of receiving 13,000 tons of sugar cane per day. There is no waiting-in-line system. The directors of the Belize Sugar Cane Association should give their utmost preoccupation on the situation cane farmers are going through, concluded Mr. Tzul.”
If I am going to be branded in the book of non grata for what I am going to say, then let it be. I heard the P.M. said (in my words and the way I understood his message) that the Guatemalan citizen Leonel Arellanos has threatened both Belize and Guatemala military army. That he, Leonel Arellanos, will shoot any of them if they should move his bodega from Belizean soil. The P.M. is waiting for the OAS representative to solve the problem so as to avoid bloodshed. But on the 2nd February 2009, he did not hesitate in saying to the unarmed cane farmers that there must prevail law and order, and that they had until 4 p.m. to get out of the way or the armed forces will do what they have to do.
Many of us Belizeans are asking ourselves why doesn’t he send those armed forces to the Belize/Guatemala Adjacency Zone (since we have no border) to put law and order? The type of system that is set up is only on behalf of the Colonial Orders who sit in their homes far away and have their colonial apologists who have turned out to be the Royal Family of Belize which have turned out to be the PUDP. Our cane farmer was unarmed making a stand against injustice. It doesn’t matter to me how many justifying wordings are given, the life of Anastacio Gutiérrez should not have been taken.
Now let me communicate to my Maya/Mestizos Brothers from the North. La muerte de nuestro hermano Anastacio Gutiérrez, no se puede quedar así nada más. Como si fuera a un animal que mataron. Hoy y para siempre cuando digan, “QUIEN VIVE?” Todos los cañeros deben de contestar, “ANASTACIO GUTIERREZ.” Anastacio Gutiérrez es un HEROE para todos los Norteños aunque los demás del país no les guste.
Anastacio Gutiérrez dio su vida por una causa noble. Como pocos hombres, ha demostrado un valor sin igual, enfrentándose a las fuerzas armadas al servicio de los Amos. Anastacio Gutiérrez, no tenia armas, más que el valor de los Maya.
ANASTACIO GUTIERREZ es el PADRE de los Norteños.
“QUIEN VIVE? ANASTACIO GUTIERREZ!!!”
4th February 2009
Finca Solana
Corozal Town