About 100 to 150 villagers demonstrated in Punta Gorda Town this morning in support of US Capital?s oil exploration activities in the district of Toledo. The Q?eqchi? Maya and Garifuna protestors say that they want jobs and a better lifestyle, and they don?t want Sarstoon-Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) to stand in their way. SATIIM has filed for an injunction to stop oil exploration in the Sarstoon-Temash National Park, a protected area of 41,000 acres with five surrounding villages: Crique Sarco, Sundaywood, Conejo, Midway and Barranco. The park covers less than a tenth (about 7%) of the entire exploration area. Gregorio Ch?oc claims that the company has misinformed the villagers, because they are telling them that SATIIM wants to block the entire project. He clarifies that they are not objecting to oil exploration outside the national park. As we have previously reported, SATIIM has lodged a suit against the Forestry Department, challenging its decision to give the company permission to explore inside the protected area, over which it has management jurisdiction. SATIIM says that the only condition for it to withdraw its objection is for US Capital to exclude the park from the project. However, protestors say that they believe that SATIIM is blocking their ability to earn a living, and this morning the company bused them in from the five villages surrounding the park to picket SATIIM?s office, as well as Ch?oc?s home. At the same time, Beatriz Bo Canelo, Mayan chairlady of Crique Sarco, has been doing the press rounds. She visited our newspaper today to express what she says are the views of the chairpersons of the 5 communities surrounding the park. Ch?oc contends that the chairpeople of the villages are siding with the oil company because they have employed them. He described Canelo as US Capital?s public relations person, as she, herself, has admitted that the oil company is financing her media rounds in the City. The bottom line, she said, is that the people in these villages need jobs and US Capital has provided them with jobs. They find life hard in those remote villages, Canelo told us. She presented to us a series of petitions from the five villages dated May 2004. There are a total of 271 names and signatures attached to the petition. About a third of the people from her village signed the petition. What we found interesting is that over 90% of those who signed said that they could work as laborers to ?chop.? The names of a handful of jobless students appear on the petitions. According to Canelo, the chair people of the village think that the environmental impact of oil exploration would be minimal and the project could provide them with a livelihood without damaging the environment. They could employ up to 70% of the men in the village, Canelo claimed. ?How do you know?? we asked. ?Right now the job is already starting. The oil company has employed them to chop the line. About 10 in each village, a total of 50 men, are employed,? Canelo claimed. She also told us that villagers would like to negotiate with US Capital for a portion of oil revenues for their communities, since they would be exploring for oil on ancestral lands. She said that they do not yet know how much they will ask for. ?[US Capital] is already helping the villagers in need,? said Canelo. ?Right now, they already delivered supplies for school children, fuel for the generators to run the computers, and they are painting community centers in all the villages.? She said that when they heard about the oil exploration project, they wanted to know what the communities would get out of it. Evidently, they have made a wish list. Here are their 10 requests: 1. Build our bridge over the Temash River 2. Fuel for generators 3. Medical supplies, medicines and doctors 4. Ambulance and emergency services 5. Electrification of homes and streets 6. Finance (education fund) 7. Jobs for high school graduates 8. Scholarships 9. School materials and supplies 10. Paint for school and community center Canelo claims that they are the ones who asked for these things; US Capital did not offer them to the villagers. ?Since they will get something out of our area, we have to get something out of them,? Canelo expressed, adding that they have not identified any long-term benefits that they would bargain for. We pointed out to her that these are basic amenities that the Government and the community should have been working together to establish, and questioned whether they have approached the Government of Belize for help in fulfilling these needs. To this, Canelo replied that no request has ever been made to the Government. Still, she informed that when she left her village yesterday, workers from Public Works in Belmopan were taking measurements for the bridge they had asked US Capital for. A bridge is necessary in Crique Sarco, said Canelo. She told us that the village could only be reached by traveling 33 to 35 miles of rough road. The bus stops on the bank of the river and they cross over to their riverside settlement in small boats. Crique Sarco is 5 to 6 miles from the national park, and while Canelo is a leader of that village, the national park is entirely outside her jurisdiction. According to Ch?oc, Canelo had announced at a public meeting in her village on May 1 that she would step down as a director of SATIIM?s board. She has not yet given them anything in writing. When she met with us today, Canelo said that she intends to formally resign, because she does not support SATIIM?s manner of dealing with villagers. According to her, she was to be paid a monthly stipend of $125, which she claims she has not received since last January. She said that the past relationship between herself and Ch?oc, and SATIIM, did not work out. Canelo told us that she has been liaising with Alistair King, the local representative of US Capital Energy-Belize Ltd. She said that unlike SATIIM, she and her people are not concerned about environmental damage because the company has shown them that the damage due to oil exploration would not be much. She contends that Ch?oc and SATIIM arrived at a position without consulting the villagers. The other chairpersons who signed the May 21, 2006, letter, echoing her position to the media are Manuel Caal of Conejo, Domingo Bah of Sundaywood, Leslie Colon of Barranco, and Fererico Sam of Midway. According to Canelo, Ch?oc did not take them into consideration when he sought to take legal action. She said that the company is now starting to employ them and they are happy. The majority of villagers, she said, depend on farming to make ends meet, but they make more money working for the company than working for themselves, she claimed. Furthermore, she said, more young people will graduate from high school in June and they, too, will need jobs. We understand that the protests may resume at the next court session, slated for Monday, June 5, 2006, in the Supreme Court in Belize City. SATIIM said that it is preparing a press statement in response to the recent developments.
