BELIZE CITY, Mon. Jan. 31, 2022– This morning, the Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Hon. Dolores Balderamos Garcia, and the Commissioner of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Greg Ch’oc, held a press conference to respond to the claims made by the spokesperson for the Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) and the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA), Cristina Coc. On Friday, Coc told AMANDALA that the government failed to carry out meaningful consultation on the most recent Free, Prior, Informed Consent protocol prior to the submission of that protocol to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Today, the Ministry sought to clarify the claims and, according to them, dispel some of the untruths.
Firstly, both Minister Balderamos Garcia and Commissioner Ch’oc insisted that despite the claim of the MLA spokesperson, wide and inclusive consultation was carried out, starting as early as March 2021. They claimed that the view presented by MLA/TAA reps is not the collective view of the organizations under the MLA and the villagers across the 41 Maya villages in southern Belize.
“Please let me dispel any notion at this point that there has been a lack of consultations,” Minister Garcia stated. During this morning’s press conference, they brought a number of documents that, according to them, provide evidence of the extensive consultation done by the Government to ascertain the view of the Maya communities. The Minister said that she visited at least 14 of the 41 villages during that period of purported consultation.
The matter of contention pertains to the government’s submission of the FPIC to the CCJ, reportedly without the consent of the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA) and a faction of the MLA. The government was given a deadline of January 31, 2022, to submit the FPIC protocol to the CCJ. Along with this new FPIC protocol, the Ministry has also submitted a revised version of an agenda to map the implementation process. Minister Garcia said that they revised a draft FPIC protocol rejected by the parties in September 2021 and, after consultations with various communities, arrived at this new FPIC protocol. But the TAA spokesperson, Coc, asserted that the association, which includes the alcaldes of the Toledo district, was ambushed.
Coc said that the government is attempting to usurp the authority of the traditional Maya government system, the alcalde system, and by submitting a document not signed by the TAA is in contravention of the CCJ consent order.
The government, however, is contending that the TAA is not the governance system for the Maya people and that all authority lies in the hands of the villagers and not their leaders. Minister Balderamos Garcia said that in the last compliance hearing the court ordered that the government submit the roadmap and FPIC protocol by today, January 31—an order which they intend to comply with rather than kicking the can down the road, said Minister Garcia.
“Now, if the organization has a difficulty with what has been submitted, they are absolutely free to apply to the court.” Minister Garcia said.
She added, “This government, I want to assure you, is serious about the implementation of the consent order in a respectful way but absolutely in an inclusive way. We do not wish to deal with only certain leaders, we wish to deal with all the various communities.”
Greg Ch’oc, a long-time Mayan activist and now Commissioner of Indigenous People’s Affairs, has come under fire amid claims that he has been working against the Toledo Alcaldes Association. He has denied the assertion and has echoed Minister Balderamos Garcia’s claims that their process of consultations was inclusive. He said that there was no requirement for those organizations to sign on to the FPIC before submission to the court.
“They are two organizations that have said we are the only two that you need to talk to, but the claim 366 provide who are the members of the MLA, so if there was a need for signatory we would have been legally bound to get all those organizations to sign,” said Ch’oc.
He added, “What is important is the content, the substance of this document, is what is important, not who signs. It has become an issue of if I can’t get my signature there it’s not good enough, rather than does this document protect the right of the community.”
When asked about the assertions that this recent FPIC falls short in regard to the language used by constantly utilizing the term “consultations” instead of “consent” and especially in portions of the document that relate to the extraction of minerals and oil from Maya lands, the Ministry said that those resources belong to the country as a whole and not the Maya community.
“The constitutional authority of the Government of Belize over all land in Belize is not affected and you can go and read that right in the consent order itself. The government is not giving away when it comes to oil drilling etc. anything in the ground is owned by the people of Belize and administrated by the government,” Minister Garcia said.
In regard to the wording in the protocol, Ch’oc said, “We have not called it consent protocol because the community may probably get the impression that they have to consent no matter what, but that is not what international law provides for; there is an option for dissent,” Choc said.
Choc said that in cases where consent is withheld at the village level, then no project can proceed; this is in cases other than the exceptions outlined in the Constitution.
“An individual organization or leaders, if they call themselves leaders, we will not be dictated to, that is really the crux of what I believe we are getting at here, and we have to maintain a strong and firm position, friendly and respectful but firm, that we are not going to be abdicating our responsibility.” Minister Garcia said.
“We now know now that it’s obvious that there is internal conflict. Do we abdicate the duty of the states to protect the rights of the Maya people, the duty is to protect, and that’s why I go back to this document. Does this document protect the free, prior, and informed rights of the Maya people, and based on international expert opinion it does. This has been filed with the Caribbean Court of Justice. If the court should say it does not, then we go back to the drawing board. “ Choc said.