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So the Toledo Alcalde Association is taking GOB to court and today was the start of that battle. Courtney. Menzies has this story.

Alcaldes from the Maya communities left their southern homes early this morning to listen in on a High Court case that could affect all of their villages.

Back in January the AG removed both the Alcalde and the deputy Alcalde from Indian Creek and replaced them - which went against the desires of the rest of the villagers.

The Toledo Alcalde Association, through their attorneys, filed for an application for permission to bring judicial review proceedings. Today, that went before the court.

Godfrey Smith, Attorney for TAA
"The two Alcaldes who were removed as well the Toledo Alcaldes Association brought an application to the court to say what was done to the two Alcaldes who were removed was wrong. We sought leave for that, the leave was opposed by the government, they said we didn't have an arguable case. The judge rules we had an arguable case. We also asked for an injection that in terms of those roles of Alcaldes that pertain to their traditional practices and customary usages that pending the trial, pending the hearing of these things, the Alcaldes appointed by the government be restrained from performing those traditional roles."

And the Alcaldes that were appointed were based on the recommendation of the village council, not based on who was chosen at the village meeting. So it's created a riff within the village, but the attorney for the government, Andrew Marshalleck explained that the bottom line is that Toledo villages cannot be governed under different laws than the rest of the country.

Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney for GOB
"It's about the village council, who was duly elected in the village, recommending one set of people to be Alcalde and the village meeting, which is what some of the other groups call it. I have recommended other people to be Alcaldes. So it's a conflict between two groups within the same village. And the issue for the government is who's recommendation do I pay heed to when making their appointments, whether it's a duly elected village council or whether it is votes from village meetings, which they say is their customary practice."

Reporter:
"So it went with the decision or the recommendations of the village council?"

Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney for GOB
"Yes."

Reporter:
"Why not the village meeting if you're talking about Alcaldes?"

Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney for GOB
"Well they put, Alcalde is just a name you see that's part of the problem. You also also- but the Alcaldeis the judicial officer that presides over the Alcalde jurisdiction court. None of us as Belizeans get to elect who our judges are. It's not our right that exists here."

"They say that the government can't appoint unless they recommend, we say "absolutely not"."

Andrew Marshalleck, Attorney for GOB
"What the policy states right now is that, it's long since been recognized by the way and policy documents going decades, saying that you need to resile to harmonize the traditional governance system with the village council system."

"So what, our position is that it requires legislation to fix that. They want, the other side's position is that these customer practices are described by them, because there is no record of them, and if you go to, whoever you go to, you might well get a different description of how it works, that that somehow is the prevailing, and takes priority over other rule making processes."

But Smith explained how they will be countering this argument:

Godfrey Smith, Attorney for TAA
"Essentially the government is saying, listen, you come here to court arguing about Alcaldes having customary practices and rights, no such thing exists in the laws of Belize, you won't find anything about Alcaldes customary practices in Village Councils Act and Inferior Courts Act and the state has the sovereign right to legislate and it has and this is the law of the land and our response to that is a will be developed that in that same way that way back when the Maya first advocated for protection of customary land tenure, it wasn't recognized in the laws of Belize, so too we're saying that the right of their villages to exclusively determine who will be their Alcaldes and the right to remove them vests in the village, not by virtue of any written law of the land but by a process of constitutional interpretation utilizing international treaty obligations and international customary law."

But for the Mayas in the south, it's more about keeping their customs and traditions safe and alive:

Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, MLA
"As the rest of Belize knows, in Toledo, all 41 communities practices the system of traditional governance which has two Alcaldes in each village, this is an important system of governance for us, it has sustained our communities since time immemorial and so we think that it's really important for us to protect and safeguard what has always kept our communities."

Their attorneys now have 14 days to file a substantive claim, after which another court date will be set.

We will keep following this case.