The Government’s fight with the cañeros of northern Belize has now quelled after the parties were able to settle their differences, but tensions have now intensified in relations with the Maya of southern Belize, who claim that the Government is trampling their land rights, and furthermore disrespecting and insulting them by pushing back their constitutional claim filed at the Supreme Court, while continuing to issue long-term logging concessions and leases on land they insist is their birthright.
“For this, the blame falls not on our communities, nor on the justice system: the blame falls on the Government of Belize, which continues to violate our rights as indigenous peoples…,” said Cristina Coc, executive director of the Julian Cho Society, a member of the Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA).
Speaking at a press conference starting at noon today at the Radisson Fort George Hotel in Belize City, the Maya leaders singled out Prime Minister Dean Barrow, and said that they were placing the blame for the land conflict squarely at his feet.
Back in the 1990’s, the Maya of southern Belize, estimated now at 19,000, aggressively pursued a major movement to establish 500,000 acres (roughly 780 square miles) as the Maya Homeland, and they went so far as to publish an atlas – Maya Atlas: The Struggle to Preserve Maya Land in Southern Belize, enshrining the essence of their territorial claim to much of Toledo.
“I am extremely disappointed as a Maya, as a Belizean. I feel personally insulted for my people; I am sad that our Government continues to keep trying to take us for a fool,” said Coc.
She recounted that in the mid-1990’s the Toledo Maya Cultural Council (TMCC), the alcaldes, and the late Julian Cho brought a case to the Supreme Court in defense of their indigenous rights to land, but the justice system failed them, Coc said, because the case never reached trial.
In 2003, the Inter-American Human Rights Commissione ruled in favor of the Maya, and concluded that the Government of Belize “…had failed to take effective measures to recognize communal property rights of Maya; to delimit, demarcate and title and otherwise establish legal mechanisms necessary to clarify and protect the territory on which their rights exist,” Coc added.
In 2007, the Maya of Toledo mounted a challenge against US Capital Energy, which was granted a concession to explore for oil in the area the Maya claim to be their homeland. The suit was brought under the banner of the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM).
In that same year the Maya leaders went back to court to seek customary land rights specifically for two villages – Conejo and Santa Cruz. Emboldened by their victory in that case, granted by no less than the Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh, they went back to the court in 2008, filing a more comprehensive land rights case.
Hearings in that milestone case of 38 villages of Toledo were supposed to begin in January, but were adjourned at the request of the Government. The case was adjourned again today, also on the request of the Government, and now a frustrated group of nearly 200 Maya, under the umbrella of the MLA, have come public to tell Prime Minister Dean Barrow that they have had enough.
After accepting that 22 alcaldes be added as claimants in the case and hearing arguments over the application by the Maya to strike out 6 points of the defense’s submissions, the Chief Justice, taking into account the availability of the attorneys, decided to adjourn. The main issue today was that Government attorney Lois Young said she had been bogged down with work on major cases, including multiple cases in the Court of Appeal, and so could not file by the court’s deadline. (Of note is that the Maya case was filed when former Solicitor General Tanya Herwanger was on her way out, and Government has yet to find a replacement for her.)
The case has now been set for hearing on June 10th – but that is four months the Maya say they cannot spare, as they insist that Government continues to undertake transactions on land they say are ancestral Maya lands, without even consulting them, treating the lands as “vacant lands.”
Directing his appeal to Prime Minister Barrow, Gregory Ch’oc, MLA chairman said: “We ask that you unclench your fist, and embrace this opportunity to join us on this historic journey to write a new chapter of nation building. We ask that you help us close this chapter….
“The people will not wait until it is convenient for you to join us. We cannot afford to wait any longer, not in these challenging times…we will move forward with or without you.”
Barrow himself did not know of today’s press conference, and when our newspaper spoke with him late this evening, following our request for an interview, he was obviously irate over the charges the group of Maya made against him and his administration.
He told us that he did not direct Young to seek the adjournment, but obviously she was able to convince the Chief Justice that one was merited.
At today’s press conference, Coc recalled statements made by Barrow, as Leader of the Opposition, in support of the Maya in the Conejo/Santa Cruz ruling. The Maya today said that they felt betrayed by the Prime Minister: “Those sweet words have not translated to a new reality on the ground for us Maya people.”
In his defense, Barrow told us that his statements were in the context of the ruling for the two villages of Conejo and Santa Cruz, but now, said Barrow, the Maya have gone “far too far” and that is why they are in court, arguing over the issue.
“I don’t know what this all means for Toledo and its integration into Belize as a district of the country of Belize,” he furthermore commented, adding that the sympathy that the Toledo Maya had enjoyed from other Belizeans with the previous case will certainly not be mirrored in this new case, involving a vast majority of Toledo.
“What the Maya want cannot be countenanced by other Belizeans,” Barrow remarked, adding that the Government will fight this one all the way to the Privy Council if it has to.
“I have no reservations in saying so,” he declared.
Even as the Maya are at loggerheads with the Barrow administration over land rights, there are clearly opposing factions in the Maya community of the south, some of whom want to continue their ancestral tradition of common land ownership, and others who want individual leases that they can take to the bank.
Earlier this week the Toledo Cacao Growers Association (TCGA) issued statements challenging the MLA on its stance before the court, and circulated petitions with over 300 signatures in support of their stance, also claiming that the MLA has not properly consulted with the Maya and is not representing their views.
When the media raised questions about who the MLA is really representing at today’s press conference, 50 to 60 of the nearly 100 persons raised their hands saying that they are cacao growers supporting the MLA and not the TCGA.
Ch’oc says that what has transpired with the recent rift within the Maya community is an example of an old colonial strategy, and he blames a Maya politician of Toledo for pushing what he claims is the Government’s agenda to “divide and conquer” the Maya.
Even as this conflict continues to brew within the Maya communities, there are tens of thousands of Belizeans of other ancestry living in Toledo: East Indians, Kriols, Garinagu, and Mestizos, some of them caught in the battle waged by the Maya for indigenous land rights.
In the current filing before the court, rice farmer Francis Johnston in Golden Stream Village has had to put all the agricultural activities on his land on hold, despite the fact that the Government had issued him a lease for land he claims he had bought from a relative of Maya ancestry. Johnston is married to a Maya woman, but in 2008 he and Maya villagers sparred in a land dispute in that village.
When our newspaper raised the issue of the rights of other Belizeans in the dispute territory, Coc described Johnston as “a victim of the system…deceived by Government” who did not have the right to issue him the lease.
“It’s the fault of the Government,” she said, adding that she sympathizes with Johnston.
At today’s press conference, Ch’oc congratulated Barry Bowen and the Belize Landowners Association for a landmark victory, in challenging Government over the Belize Constitution Sixth Amendment Bill, for which the Dr. Conteh ruled in their favor on Friday, February 13.
Speaking with Amandala after today’s press conference, Greg Ch’oc said that he does not know if the court will recognize customary land tenure for all of the land in the 38 villages in question. In the case for which ruling was passed in 2007, the court recognized 3,000 acres of Santa Cruz Village, based on the historical occupation of the Maya.
Ch’oc told the gathering that the Maya believe they can write their own destiny: “Nobody is going to stop us now.”
The leaders spoke with confidence that the Supreme Court would rule in their favor, but the fight, they said, is not confined to the courts: “It is about continuing to defend our rights come what may. We will continue to defend our rights whether that be in court…or outside of court.”
As for the schism between the MLA and TCGA, which had withdrawn its membership from the MLA, Ch’oc said that “there are Judases” and even Jesus had one.
“We have a lot of babies here today and we want to make sure that when they grow up to be men and women like us, they will have a place to live,” Cristina Coc told the press.
Ch’oc expressed optimism that the Maya would eventually be united in the cause, and he claimed that the only reason why so many signed the TCGA petition is that the people have been misinformed and sent mixed messages.