Maya Leaders Say Panel Shift Tilts Against Them

Before the review panel even resumes work on Maya customary land rights legislation, a new fight has broken out over who gets a voice in the process. Government has added a representative for private landowners, but the Maya Leaders Alliance says that shifts the balance against them. Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck says the seat is necessary because any new law must also consider competing third-party claims. Tonight, we hear both sides.

 

Andrew Marshaleck, SC, Attorney-At-Law

“There’s a review panel constituting, constituted, two members appointed by the government, two members from the appellant side, Maya Leader side, and now government has decided to add in some, a representative from the third party, landowners. If there’s competing claims against the same space, clearly everybody can’t get the same space. You’ll have to find a way to share it.”

 

Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, Maya Leaders Alliance

“It’s a concern because our fight, if you want to put it that way, is with the government of Belize. It is the government of Belize that have failed to recognize and respect our customary land tenure rights. It’s not the third parties. It is the government of Belize. So the two parties in this matter are the Maya people, who are being violated, and the government of Belize, who has a duty to protect our rights and is failing to do their duty. Now, if you’re gonna introduce the third parties to this review panel, then what are you doing? It is very crystal clear what you’re doing. You’re trying to shift the balance of power around the table. If you have the… on the negotiating table, you add another one that will support and oppose what Maya people propose, then that’s the effect that you’re trying to a- accomplish. You’re putting us against private landowners. We don’t have a fight with private landowners, we have a fight with government for failing to protect us. But what the government is trying to do is put us against each other. I think that is crystal clear to all Belizeans. We see what is going on. And so with the review panel, they’re not serious.”

 

 

Maya Boundaries Mapped, But Still Not Recognized

 

The Maya land rights talks are also deadlocked over how much land should be recognized. Government says its draft law offers a fair formula, but insists Toledo’s land resources are limited. The Maya Leaders Alliance says that argument only delays recognition. It says communities have already mapped their traditional lands, and if government does not move, the fight could return to court.

 

Andrew Marshalleck, SC, Attorney-At-Law

“The draft, as right now provides for the automatic recognition of land measured by reference to five acres times the population, the Maya population in South. That doesn’t mean that everybody gets five acres. It’s just a total. You have about thirty thousand to forty thousand Mayans in the South, five acres per person. It’s a hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred thousand acres. There are about a million acres in Toledo.”

 

Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, Maya Leaders Alliance

“Our people have spent days in the bush harmonizing their boundaries, marking them out so that the government can come and just easily walk and see this is where our boundaries are with each other. This is how far we use the land. There is nothing stopping this government from recognizing and giving title to those leaders who have finished their boundaries. And so we call on the government to really take its place. Show us that in fact you have, you are, you have a will to show good faith to the Maya people. But if we go back to the review panel and we continue to argue over the same things and there’s a fixed position and there’s no no, no possibility of considering an alternative, then that is a useless process. We will let them finish their law, their bad law, and then we will go back and litigate because that’s the options that are available to us.”

 

Andrew Marshalleck

“At the end of the day, there’s only so much land in the Toledo district, and it can only be shared among so many people if you expect a certain amount of land. It’s just maths. It’s going to run out. There’s only so much. You have to be sensible and rational in how you treat with it.”

 

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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