Claimants may ‘evict’ Army from Teteron

Chaguaramas land claimants, who say they were never properly compensated when their lands were compulsorily acquired to build the American military base during World War II will today move back onto some of the disputed lands.

A spokesman for the claimants has even suggested that their progressive reoccupation of the lands could result in the eventual ejection of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force from their base at Teteron Bay. Today’s mass occupation comes after years of legal battles in which the families failed to sway local courts and the British Privy Council, and which has now reached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Augustine Noel, who heads a group called Chaguaramas Legal Land Owners, said he has already begun reoccupying his claimed lands and that today the Tardieu family will occupy their claimed 377 acres of land at Scotland Bay.

Noel said: “I paid taxes on the land on 12 January, occupied it on 9 February  and am now planting it.” He said some 225 families were displaced from their Chaguaramas lands. Noel said the descendants of one Jean-Claude Pierre have a claim to the land he had owned at Teteron Bay. Noel said: “The old folks who used to live there say the barracks are on part of their land. We are getting an order before we go on the land, so we will evict them.” He said that after the Tardieu’s, the next succession of occupations would be that of the lands of Jean-Claude Pierre, Oscar Philips and the Zamore family, and so on. Noel said: “We will reclaim our lands after 62 years. After spending one million dollars in the courts of Trinidad and Tobago we are finding out the truth — there is no justice in Trinidad and Tobago for African people.”

Forecasting what would occur today, Noel said: “They will start cutting the land and cultivating it and start living back on the land. They will remain there permanently. We also want the Inter-America  court to award us compensation for costs and damages.” Noel is inviting all claimants and well-wishers to join the land occupation, saying that transport will leave Island Home (past Caridoc), Chaguaramas, for Scotland Bay at 9 am this morning.