At the top of our newscast, we told you that the Mayan squatters on the outskirts of Belmopan have unified to stand their ground and fight back the advance of the municipal authority. Certainly the issue of land and the Mayas is an always divisive, often explosive issue. And it's that way because of the always lurking concept of a Mayan homeland which is based on the belief that because the Mayas were here before the rest of us, they are entitled to a homeland. It's a concept that never ceases to stir anger in the deep south, where non-Mayas feel that they are systematically excluded from any land west of Punta Gorda. In February, 7NEWS traveled to Toledo for a public forum and found that the issue of land and the Maya has its roots deep in the soil of the south.

Mayan Rights Activist #1,
“Our people, we are the Indian people. We have to find land. Every each single one of my people has to find a piece of land.”

That point was made emphatically at yesterday’s press conference. Entitlement to a piece of land, communal land, for his people whose arrival on this soil predates European conquest and sovereignty. According to this report systematic misuse and misappropriation of Maya communal land by the Government of Belize is a violation of human rights. And each of those human rights means that government must recognize the communal property of the Maya; that is lands they have traditionally occupied and used and put into law legislative and administrative measures to demarcate Maya communal territory. Sounds like a homeland to us and it is an idea Prime Minister Musa says is aberrant.

Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
“Really the thing is and I must state this very categorically as Prime Minister of Belize that I will not preside over the balkanization of Belize. I will not create a homeland just for Mayas, or a homeland just for Garifuna, or a homeland just for Creole. All of Belize belongs to all Belizeans and that is the number one and the first principle.”

It may be a first principle for the Prime Minister but it was a faraway thought at yesterday’s press conference when Choq marched out community leaders citing abuses of those Mayan communal lands. According to this report those abuses are more than just the usual government shadiness and high handedness; it is the systematic exploitation of human rights.

Community Leader #1,
“The people are staying poorer and poorer because the break is given always to the foreign investors who come with all those big money. But the local ones don’t have those kind of money so far that’s why the break is not given to the local people.”

Community Leader #2,
“In those villages back there in the remote villages, people go out there and apply for land without the consent of the Chairman and the Alcalde system in that particular area. That is our biggest concern and we would appreciate if the government realizes this and abide by the village council act.”

Community Leader #3,
“This industry has been affected by what the Government of Belize has been doing. Without consultation of the communities they are doing surveying of lands.”

Community Leader #4,
“You will get to become an old old man and you will never get your land. But what I see are people who already have…maybe most of them are foreigners who come in and got money and apply for many thousand acres of land and they are ready to get it.”

Mayan Rights Activist #1,
“Most of the people here in town went there in our village and grabbed our village. They grabbed hundreds of acres of land and those people they never tried to work in the bush before. Hundreds of acres of land they get there in Midway; they got 400 acres of land. But our Maya people, our Ketchi people they (government) don’t believe they work hard and they only give them 20 acres each or 30 acres each.”

Community Leader #5,
“Later on it will be causing a war. I am serious.”

It is serious indeed but not just for the Mayas, for all Belizeans. The government argues that land ownership problems reach all across all parts of Belize. And poverty? Well the Mayans don’t have the market cornered on that either, that stretches all the way from Otoxha to Port Loyola. And that sense of unequal opportunity that when it comes to land in Toledo some are more equal than others is what galls some non-Mayans born and grown in Toledo.

Toledo Resident #1,
“Can a non-Boom Creek person apply for a lot or a 5 acre lot in your community? What are the policies? We are all from Toledo. I am in the same shoes as you who were born and bread here and I don’t have a piece of land. Can I apply for a piece of land in Colombia, San Antonio, or wherever like the people coming to P.G. to apply for a land? This is us living in Toledo.”

Community Leader #2,
“The way I understand, the way you understand as Garifuna members 3, 4, 5 years ago we heard about this homeland. Do you know how much the Garifuna are worrying about this and that is what we should consider. Remember its when a forum like this comes up we face those problems. How can you come and live in PG and I can’t go and live in Big Falls? That is the first question and I believe that, as Mr. Choq said, there is nothing concrete and I believe that we need to reconsider about these types of situations so that we don’t hurt any races especially the born and grow Belizeans.”

But Choq says it is more about race. In fact, he thinks that is a red herring set up as a divisive tool by the politicians. For him the real struggle is about land and power, those most precious assets which government protects as its eminent domain.

Greg Choq, Mayan Leader
“There is nothing or no policy regarding who gets land and where they get land. Well I want to tell you something; we have no control over that right now. It is the government that is deciding who gets land and where they get that land whether you like it or not.”

And so far, it is that same government that will decide if whether it will adhere to the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. And for what it is worth, the Maya Leaders hope that with international pressure they can bend what has so far been intransigent political will.

As we noted, that story first aired in February of this year. Since then government has still not given any public acknowledgment that it will adhere to the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights which is an arm of the OAS.