Prince William, Kate Middleton cancel visit to first stop of Caribbean Royal Tour due to protests by natives
Prince William and Kate Middleton have cancelled their visit to Belize which was scheduled for March 19 and was supposed to be their first destination as part of their Royal Tour of the Caribbean which would eventually end in Jamaica on March 26 as per reports by People, via ET Canada. The outing was called off due to protests that erupted on Friday.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were set to visit a cocoa farm in the village but the plan was scrapped after a pool of villagers rallied and protested against colonialism and the plans of the Royals to land their helicopter in a football field. Villagers from Indian Creek, a village in Belize, were captured holding signs and hoardings that read, "Prince William leave our land." The protest was a result of an ongoing dispute between the Q’eqehi Maya people, Fauna & Flora International which is a conservation charity and also the local state over a land dispute between the three groups on who owns a 12,000-acre area of land.
The chairman of the Indian Creek village Sebastian Shol proclaimed that the Royals "could land anywhere but not on our land." "For us, it really hits home because of the treatment. The organizer said we had to let them use the football field and that people were coming to our village and it had to look good. Giving community leaders commands did not sit well with the community," explained Dionisio Shol, a village youth leader.
Meanwhile, a royal insider revealed to People that the first leg of the tour was taken off the list due to "sensitive issues," while the couple would now be visiting another place on the tour list.