An attempt to elect a new executive for the Central American Black Organization (CABO), also known by its Spanish equivalent, Organización Negra Centroamericana (ONECA), ended in a stalemate earlier this month, and a recent notice issued by President Sidney Francis Martin is calling members to a meeting in San Salvador – at a date to be announced – to resolve the problem.

There was confusion over the outcome of the vote on Saturday, December 7, 2013, as a part of CABO’s AGM, held in Bluefields, Nicaragua.

Each country has one vote, although there may be multiple organizations from one country attending. In the case of Belize, representatives were drawn from the National Kriol Council (NKF), the National Garifuna Council (NGC) and the UBAD Education Foundation (UEF). The country reps voted in subgroups, and the majority vote was tabled as the country position.

However, problems arose with the Nicaragua vote, after the rep who tabled the vote said that it did not represent the country’s position.

Francis Martin’s notice, which we received today, said that there has been a campaign to misinform and create confusion in the organization.

“It is heartbreaking as Black people that we have a responsibility to lead other Black people and we have this level of disunity, and so we knew going into this particular situation this would either be a make or break CABO process, and right now, the best I can say is, it’s in limbo,” said UEF chair, YaYa Marin-Coleman, in recounting to Amandala what transpired at the AGM.

Marilyn Marin-Sandifer, a Belizean representative, told us that initially things started off well, but it got political – with an all-out voting campaign and heated elections as a part of a process which ran for hours.

Sandifer lamented that after all the wasted effort, the election was declared null and void.

“Nothing came out of what was a hell of a lot of fighting,” she said.

All this aside, she told us that at the end of the day, she was glad she went to Bluefields and had the experience.

What is the next step?

“We left not knowing what the next step will be. We are waiting to hear from the executive members of CABO as it is now, what the next step is,” Coleman told us.

The president’s letter said that the San Salvador meeting should be geared at reconciliation.