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.
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