We've reported very extensively on the recent judgment from the Court of Appeal on the Maya Land Rights case, and on the Government's refusal to renew the co-management contract for the Sarstoon-Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) to manage the national park.
While these 2 issues are completely different, there is some overlap because some of the same personalities from SATIIM are the spokespersons for the Indigenous Maya communities. Another important overlap is that part of the park occupies lands which these communities live on – and over which, the court says, they exercise communal land rights.
So, they have a strong sense of protection for the park, which SATIIM has been the guardians of for years, and they've been trying to block US Capitol Energy from conducting oil exploration inside the park.
Well, today the Executive Director of SATIIM, Greg Ch'oc, and 3 Alcaldes from the south were in Belize City to make media rounds. So, we caught up with them after their appearance on KREM's WUB morning show, and we asked Ch'oc about an update on their injunction filed against US Capitol.
He told us that there is a particular urgency for this matter to be dealt with in the Supreme Court:
Greg Choq - Spokesperson for Maya Communities
"We have received notice from the attorney that the court has been set for the 19th of September as the date for the hearing."
Daniel Ortiz
Can you tell us what is the urgency to get this matter heard in the courts?"
Greg Choq
"We've instructed our attorneys on the consent of the leaders of the community to try to bring the date closer because the company has intensified its operation and they're having twenty five dump trucks out there trying to prepare the site and we feel that if we do not stop them, that the rights affirmed by the Supreme Court will not have been for nothing. So it is urgent that we get a hearing by the court to see whether an injunction is required and we feel it is. Half a mile of road has been constructed inside the park. Two acres of what they call the platform has been fully racked. We understand from our rangers that it sinks now and then, obviously because the area is wetland and the material they've placed on those areas, and with the heavy rain, it has not settled; that is one of the reason why we are planning to take the media out there to have a look at what we are talking about. Obviously, when I describe it here, it doesn't provide the magnitude of the activities that they are engaging in."
Reporter
"The last time we spoke SATIM had been basically been told to get off the land, you have no rights to go on the land. Is that still the situation?"
Greg Choq
"From the reading of the judgment of the court of appeal, it has affirmed the position I have taken at the Lands press conference that land is Maya customary Land, so in our view, we still have a right and a duty to protect and safeguard the resources on those lands."
Daniel Ortiz
"I know that you said that while the co-management has seized in terms of governments' position, can you tell us what SATIM is doing to safeguard the park?"
Greg Choq
"We carried out our mandate under the agreement we have with the government, which was pretty much to provide on site management, provide patrols to deter illegal activities, and I have said this at the last press conference, that our effort in that area has limit and deterred illegal activities that you have seen rampant in the Chiquibul."
Daniel Ortiz
"Has the government changed its' position, somewhat, in order to reinstate that co-management agreement, for this year?"
Greg Choq
"No that I know of. I've not have any communication with the government or Minister Lisel Alamilla."
Ch'oc has promised to take the media to the locations of the Sarstoon Temash National Park, where US Capitol has allegedly increased their activities.
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