San Marcos Land Fight: Title vs. Claims

There’s a similar land dispute in San Marcos. At the center of that controversy is a question that cuts through the noise: who actually owns the land, and who’s stirring conflict around it? According to Toledo Private and Lease Landowners Ltd., the answer is straightforward. Andy Johnson says the Tindall family holds clear legal title to the property and has done nothing to provoke tension, even as a small group moves in to stake customary claims on land they’ve never developed or occupied. Johnson says the facts on the ground don’t match the claims. He insists the Tindalls are simply restoring land that was already cleared, hiring Maya workers, and avoiding confrontation, even calmly returning fencing placed on their property.

 

Andy Johnson, Toledo Private and Lease Landowners Ltd.

“When it comes to San Marcos, you have a property landowner, he has clear title. I’ve looked at all his documents… The Tindalls. He is of Creole descent, but if you look at it, it’s not the entire community of San Marcos. It’s just a little group that’s saying that it’s our customary land that we so use and enjoy, but they have no kind of development on the Tindalls farm. So how are you going to say that you use and enjoy it if you’ve never been there. And the Tindalls aren’t clearing down new property, they are just cleaning up what was already cleaned before, and they want to institute cattle, coconuts, and you really gotta look at it because, on the ground, with the Tindalls, all their employees are Mayans. This is instigating violence amongst Maya people. They went and they erected barbed wire fence on Tindall’s property, saying that we’re making a claim, this is ours. What the Tindalls did, they took down back the barbed wires, rolled it up, took it over on the tractor and gave it back to them and said, “This is yours, take it off our property.” At no time the Tindalls have been violent. At no time they’ve incited anything with the community, at no time they’ve engaged them. They’ve been very peaceful and that’ something we need to be very grateful for because the members of TPLL have been very peaceful.”

 

The group warns that false claims and unauthorized actions risk turning a land issue into unnecessary community conflict.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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