BELIZE CITY, Fri. June 18. 2021– After some years of litigation, the Maya village of Jalacte has emerged victorious in its lawsuit against the government of Belize. On Wednesday, June 16, Chief Justice Madam Michelle Arana handed down her decision and awarded damages upward of 6.3 million dollars to the village of Jalacte and two residents of the village, Jose Ical and Estevan Caal. The villagers claimed compensation for the acquisition and occupation of lands in Jalacte Village for which they had customary land rights. The lands were used without prior consent from the village being given to the Government of Belize.

Infrastructural works on that land, which started as far back as 2010, were executed by the government contractor CISCO Construction. They received the contract in 2013 to begin the construction of a road from the Dump, through to Jalacte, to a location close to the Belize/Guatemala border. The road in question was a 25-foot-wide dirt road with many curves and hills, which was straightened and widened during the works, resulting in many villagers, starting with Estevan Caal, losing access to their valuable customary lands on both sides of the road.

“Jalacte village was arbitrarily deprived of lands along the road that were damaged by the discarding or extraction of materials during the road construction, and by being prevented from accessing his remaining farmlands, all without constitutional safeguards, Jalacte and Mr. Caal were arbitrarily deprived of that property,” page 80 of Chief Justice Arana’s written judgment states.

The villagers’ claim also stated that CISCO and the Ministry of Agriculture occupied lands in the villages, which had been owned and worked on by the claimant Estevan Caal. As part of an initiative that was separate from the road-construction, the Agriculture Ministry had placed two pre-built structures on the land, and they also constructed a greenhouse, purportedly to aid in the fight against a Mediterranean fruit fly outbreak in the area that, according to them, had been caused by the importation of Guatemalan fruits.

CISCO, on the other hand, occupied a two-acre campsite — a move for which they sought permission only after they had already been at the location for some time.

Those infrastructural works are completed now, and a highway-style road near 45 feet in width now passes through the village and leads to the Belize-Guatemala border. At no point did the residents of Jalacte village give the government of Belize consent to take the lands for which they had customary ownership rights to carry out road construction, according to their claim.

In their court claim, the villagers made reference to the Maya customary land tenure system which exists in Southern Belize, and they noted that the village of Jalacte was afforded its property rights legally in the April 22, 2015 Consent Order from the Caribbean Court of Justice. These rights were affirmed once more through this most recent ruling by the Chief Justice.

The argument that GoB presented, however, was that until there was a determination and declaration of the boundaries of the customary lands, it couldn’t be said that the lands on which the construction activities took place were in fact in Jalacte. They also claimed that all “acts alleged to have been done by or on behalf of the Government were done prior to the Consent Order, and such could not have been in breach of the Consent Order.”

The government of Belize even went as far as to question whether Jalacte lands could constitute a village without the boundaries being determined. “The Defendants humbly submit that until there has been a declaration of the boundaries of Jalacte, it cannot be determined that the land in issue is in fact Jalacte lands. As such, it would be premature for the Court to make such a declaration. The procedure for the declaration of a village is clearly outlined in the Village Council Act,” stated the GoB submission, to which Chief Justice Arana made reference in her judgment.

CJ Arana was not convinced by their argument and based her decision on the tenets of the CCJ ruling — that prior consent is necessary before any use or occupation of customary Maya land.

“Having reviewed all the evidence presented in this case, I am of the considered view that the Defendants took possession of the land without the consent of the Maya village of Jalacte and Estevan Caal,” Chief Justice Arana noted in her written decision.

CJ Arana found that the actions of the defendants were done in breach of the CCJ’s 2015 Consent Order. She also found that the government of Belize breached the villagers’ constitutional rights, since they took possession of the land without obtaining prior consent. The decision emphasizes that the government cannot take customary lands without first complying with the Land Acquisition Act.

The Chief Justice’s decision states, “In light of these judgments of the Court of Appeal and the CCJ, especially the Consent Order of the highest court when dealing with land in this part of the country which has been occupied and used by the Mayans for centuries and which is still used today, the presumption must be that those lands are customary Mayan lands. What follows from this is that the informed prior consent of the affected people must be obtained before the commencement of any project that will affect their land.”

Interestingly, the current Attorney General, Magali Marin Young (Senior Counsel), was on the other side of the claim for years before being appointed AG in the new PUP administration. This multi-million-dollar judgment constitutes a legal defeat for her office, which may likely appeal the decision to a higher court.

In her decision, CJ Arana pointed out that Hon. Young’s previous arguments, in her capacity as Senior Counsel prior to her appointment as AG, actually helped to sway her toward her final decision. “I find the arguments of Mrs. Young SC for the Claimants to be extremely persuasive and I find myself in agreement with those arguments that Maya customary title lands are not, in fact, national lands under the National Lands Act, and if they are, Maya customary rights on those lands still have to be extended the constitutional safeguards if they are taken, as contained in the Claimants’ Skeleton Argument,” the Chief Justice said.

Chief Justice Arana awarded damages totaling $6,302,607.52 to the village and the two individual claimants, Jose Ical and Estevan Caal.

The construction of the Belize Agricultural Health Authority’s (BAHA) outpost on customary lands will cost the government $999,895.52, to be paid to the village for arbitrary deprivation of the land in the area. Another $341,074.19 will be paid for the CISCO campsite, and the destruction of the areas adjacent to the new highway will cost the government $1,496,757.17. And finally, the government will have to pay damages in the amount of $3,464,880.64 for lands that were taken permanently to accommodate the straightened and widened roadway.