Deadlock Deepens as PM Eyes Unilateral Move on Maya Lands

And tonight, a high-stakes question, can the Briceño administration finally find common ground on Maya land rights? Prime Minister John Briceño admits it hasn’t been easy. He says talks have hit repeated roadblocks, with the Maya Leaders Alliance pushing back against the government’s proposals at every turn. Now, with progress stalled, the Prime Minister is signaling a tougher approach, suggesting his administration may move ahead and pass the legislation anyway. And if there are objections? Briceño says those concerns can be taken to the courts. It’s a bold stance on one of the country’s most sensitive and long-standing issues.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I think it is important for us to set out what is the policy of the PUP and as a government set out under George Price that we will not allow the balkanization of this country and that we are one country. We are one country. Now, of course there are people that with the Maya Leaders Alliance that supports our party. There are a lot of people that do not support the MLA that supported us. Now they are calling on us and say we voted for you and you are ignoring us. We are spending a lot of time with the alliance, really trying to find how we can settle this. We even went to the point of trying to delineate a certain amount of acreage for person and multiply it so it becomes a big amount, I think it end up being about thirty-five thousand acres, to set that aside and start somewhere. MLA said no to whatever we want. I think we need to probably just meet and try to come with a compromise and if we can’t put the legislation and let it be challenged. If not we will never move with that program.”

 

The Maya Leaders Alliance rejected parts of the draft legislation and formally raised concerns with the Caribbean Court of Justice, warning that the process itself is flawed.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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