Tonight, the Maya of Southern Belize is extremely concerned about what
they suspect is a land grab targeted at the Maya communal lands that
they occupy. The Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcaldes
Association strongly believe that recent land survey activities in
their communities are connected to electioneering.
They say that over the last few weeks, residents of the villages of
Golden Stream, Medina Bank, San Pedro Colombia, Indian Creek, Laguna,
San Marcos, and Sunday Wood have observed land surveyors who have
suddenly shown up to open survey lines on parcels of land that they're
either living on or cultivating.
These surveyors appear to be staking claims to huge parcels of land
that the Maya in these communities consider theirs. And of course, they
have a consent order from the Caribbean Court of Justice which should
protect their communal lands from these kinds of incursions.
The Maya leadership is hoping that the government will intervene and
stop these shady activities.
They say that these surveyors keep insisting that they have been given
authority to survey from the Lands Department.
A press release from the MLA and the TAA says, quote, "
Government of Belize is under a legal requirement from each level
of our courts to protect Maya rights to their lands. This means
immediately putting an end to the issuance or granting of any
rights over Maya land in the absence of the informed consent of the
Maya people, and affirmatively acting to stop any encroaching
activities by third parties."
End quote.
This evening, we spoke via teleconference with Cristina Coc, a
representative of the Maya people of Southern Belize, and here's what
she had to say about what looks like a land-grab aimed at them:
Christiana Coc - Spokeswoman, TAA/MLA
"There's always been incursions on Mayan land, this is exactly why we went
to the courts to seek affirmation of protection. At the same time however,
there is an alarm because there has been an increase in the volume and
frequency of land surveying right now in the Toledo district the last hour
before election and so one has to ask the question whether or not it is
politically motivated and whether or not it is related to what we have seen
historically in Belize where around campaign time, politicians offer land
in exchange for votes, we hope that is not the situation, we hope that the
government will address these ongoing violations which are in direct
conflict with the CCJ content order and we denounce these actions because
we believe that all these 3rd parties are being facilitates but the land's
and survey department, we received bits and pieces of information to
suggest that. We have communicated to the relevant offices, we inquired
about these permission to survey and we are very aware, have been told many
times by the Toledo land right commission that the various government
ministries that CEO of those ministries, that many of the government agents
have received training and aware of the CCJ order."
Daniel Ortiz
"Have you guys had any of the Maya people who've seen this happening, these
surveys happening approach these surveyors and these 3rd parties to ask
them straight up, what are you doing here?"
Christiana Coc
"Absolutely, it's not just anybody, our villages are governed by our
traditional leadership system, the Alcalde system and so our Alcaldes
working in tandem with chair people of the villages, the chairman and the
village council have approach these surveyors and have inquired where the
authority comes from and the claim is always that they come with the
blessing, the permission from the lands and survey department and that they
are surveying national land. It is very clear to us because not only are
farms and milpas being affected but even residential areas where we have
our own villages living, this is concerning to us because it impacts our
livelihood and as we have seen throughout the covid pandemic, how valuable
land is and how valuable the production of that land is for the food
security of Mayan communities and Belizeans alike. We recognise that the
government cannot feed our people, they cannot employ all of our people,
they cannot rescue us from this economic spiral that we're experiencing but
what we can do is to provide full security of our people by protecting
their tenure on the land by protecting their use and productivity on the
land and so this is very alarming for us that the government would allow
such actions. We have obviously written a numerous communications to the
government to put them on notice, we have inquired about the surveys, we
have put the surveyors themselves on notice and we have of course reported
to various bodies, one of which you perhaps are referring to is Interactive
Commission of Human Rights. We reported to them and we made public in front
of the attorney general's representative at crown council, Finnegan at that
time, two days ago about these incursions, yet we haven't seen anything
done and they were not able to give us anything substantive in terms of
what they are going to do to address or arrest these incursions and so
we're very concerned about that."
The Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcalde's Association are
recommending that if any of the residents in the Mayan communities
observe these survey activities, they should try and document it.
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