Lisel The Lightning Rod? "Nonsense!"

Several months ago, it made evening news when the Mayan village of Indian Creek in the Toledo District publicly expressed their outrage against a private landowner group represented by conservationist Lisel Alamilla.

As we have reported, the dispute is over 12,000 acres of land located near the village, and although the conservation group, Fuana and Flora International, has title proving its private property, the villagers strongly believe it makes up a part of their Maya communal lands.

Alamilla's connection to the conservation group was a major sore point for the Maya and the Briceno Government. That's because up until the close of 2020, she served as the Chairperson of the Toledo Maya Land Rights Commission, which was established to work with the Maya people and the government on how best to officially implement Maya customary land rights.

So, when Alamilla appeared as a guest on last night's episode of Uncut, host Jules Vasquez asked her to finally address the controversy which she had initially dismissed back in February and March.

Here's her take on the backstory behind that the land that's now in dispute:

"There are 3 parcels of land that make up the Boden Creek Ecological Preserve, as it's referred to. And it's right opposite Nim Li Punit Archaeological Site and borders the Primary School of Indian Creek. Let's go back to the whole thing about private lands, and where it fits into this whole Maya Land Rights movement, right. First, [for] private freehold title land, people have rights. You can't just extinguish their rights by consent order, right. Their rights are protected by [the] constitution. If this was a leasehold land or land that there wasn't a title for, it would be a different story."

"So then, is it preposterous to claim that you need to be careful with this because of the customary land rights? You're saying that this estate does not fall under customary land rights."

"Well, what I'm saying is this, right. In regards to the consent order, if you have private lands, and the Maya people are claiming those lands to be their lands, and they want the government to recover those lands and return it to them, and the government agrees, there's a process that you have to go through to recover that land. One of the first things that you probably would do is you would approach the landowner and say, We agree with the villagers of Indian Creek that this land should be recovered and returned to them. And so, we want to ask you to if you would take another piece of land of the same value or size somewhere else in the country.' And the person might agree, the owner. If the person doesn't agree then you can say, well, we wanna purchase the land from you. We'll pay you for the value of the land, and the owner can say, no, I don't want to get rid of the land. Government has to take that owner to court, there has to be a process to extinguish that owner's rights. This consent order, tells you that Maya Customary Land tenure exists in the Toledo District, but it doesn't prescribe how those lands are going to be recovered. With Boden Creek, this is private land, and until you get to the point where you're going to start addressing the issues of private land, this land is protected."

"You're a lightning rod, Lisel. You have the government putting out a release against you. The next month, the community is up in arms against you. What's up with that?"

"And I haven't really responded to that?"

"You have not responded, and I'm asking you now, what's your response to that?"

"Well, Jules, because people are talking nonsense."

"How so?"

"This is private land. It's freehold title land. It has protection under the constitution. First of all, when you're talking about Government the whole thing they're saying, that government should maintain the status quo. That applies to crown land. That doesn't apply to private land."

"You represent now Fauna and Flora International, am I right?"

"Yes."

"So, what do they wish to do with Boden Creek?"

"I think, actually, it's very complementary with what the Maya people say they want to recover the lands for, which is for conservation. It is for customary uses."

"What do you mean by customary uses? Logging, fishing, hunting?"

"Yes."

"Logging as well."

"Some, usually extraction of forest products."