Police fire tear gas as Success squatters get confrontational
The bridge which the squatters erected a few weeks ago and which was dismantled today
Police were on Wednesday afternoon forced to fire tear gas at a group of squatters who became confrontational during an exercise to have them removed from sugarcane lands belonging to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
When BIG Smith News Watch visited the location, squatters were hurling abusive remarks at police officers who were present on the ground to ensure no breach of the peace, as contractors were demolishing a bridge which was constructed by the squatters to access the lands.
It was while heavy machinery was being used to remove planks and boards from the bridge, that some of the protesters began hurling glass bottles, sticks, and huge chunks of mud in the direction of the police officers and workmen.
This forced the police to fire tear gas in the direction where the missiles were coming from. The squatters then began retreating, and some made their exit from the cane lands onto the embankment through a back entrance, where they began using objects to block the road, forcing motorists to divert.
Vehicles which are stranded on the cane lands
The removal of the bridge has also forced a number of the squatters to be stranded in the cane lands with their vehicles. It is unclear how those vehicles will get out of the area, given the fact that the sugar corporation is moving ahead with plans to have the lands flooded within a few days, as part of its land preparation exercise to restart cane harvesting in the location.
One woman who spoke with this publication was in tears while relating that she was born and raised on the street, and had been sleeping on cardboard on the pavement for years. She said that she came to the area after she heard that lands were being issued to persons who did not have house lots.
The Ministry of Housing’s Central Housing and Planning Authority has made it clear that they have not issued lands in the area, since the lands do not belong to the Ministry or its housing agency.
Police form a human barricade between squatters and operators of a heavy machinery
National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) which is a holding company for state properties, was holding the lands for GuySuCo after the closure of the Enmore and La Bonne Intention (LBI) Estates.
Both NICIL and GuySuCo are also on record as stating that they did not issue the lands to anyone or place it on the market
“Approximately seventeen (17) years of priceless research work was destroyed by the trespassers in their quest to clear the lands by burning cane fields. An investigation has been launched and the perpetrators would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” a newspaper advertisement by GuySuCo noted earlier this week.
“Further, with the reopening of the Enmore/LBI Estate and as part of the normal land preparation activities for replanting canes, you are hereby advised that those lands would be flooded within seven (7) days from today,” the advertisement also stated.
