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Mayans Allege Land Grab Setup
Thu, October 29, 2020

Tonight, the Maya of Southern Belize is extremely concerned about what they suspect is a land grab targeted at the Maya communal lands that they occupy. The Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcaldes Association strongly believe that recent land survey activities in their communities are connected to electioneering.

They say that over the last few weeks, residents of the villages of Golden Stream, Medina Bank, San Pedro Colombia, Indian Creek, Laguna, San Marcos, and Sunday Wood have observed land surveyors who have suddenly shown up to open survey lines on parcels of land that they're either living on or cultivating.

These surveyors appear to be staking claims to huge parcels of land that the Maya in these communities consider theirs. And of course, they have a consent order from the Caribbean Court of Justice which should protect their communal lands from these kinds of incursions.

The Maya leadership is hoping that the government will intervene and stop these shady activities.

They say that these surveyors keep insisting that they have been given authority to survey from the Lands Department.

A press release from the MLA and the TAA says, quote, " Government of Belize is under a legal requirement from each level of our courts to protect Maya rights to their lands. This means immediately putting an end to the issuance or granting of any rights over Maya land in the absence of the informed consent of the Maya people, and affirmatively acting to stop any encroaching activities by third parties." End quote.

This evening, we spoke via teleconference with Cristina Coc, a representative of the Maya people of Southern Belize, and here's what she had to say about what looks like a land-grab aimed at them:

Christiana Coc - Spokeswoman, TAA/MLA
"There's always been incursions on Mayan land, this is exactly why we went to the courts to seek affirmation of protection. At the same time however, there is an alarm because there has been an increase in the volume and frequency of land surveying right now in the Toledo district the last hour before election and so one has to ask the question whether or not it is politically motivated and whether or not it is related to what we have seen historically in Belize where around campaign time, politicians offer land in exchange for votes, we hope that is not the situation, we hope that the government will address these ongoing violations which are in direct conflict with the CCJ content order and we denounce these actions because we believe that all these 3rd parties are being facilitates but the land's and survey department, we received bits and pieces of information to suggest that. We have communicated to the relevant offices, we inquired about these permission to survey and we are very aware, have been told many times by the Toledo land right commission that the various government ministries that CEO of those ministries, that many of the government agents have received training and aware of the CCJ order."

Daniel Ortiz

"Have you guys had any of the Maya people who've seen this happening, these surveys happening approach these surveyors and these 3rd parties to ask them straight up, what are you doing here?"

Christiana Coc
"Absolutely, it's not just anybody, our villages are governed by our traditional leadership system, the Alcalde system and so our Alcaldes working in tandem with chair people of the villages, the chairman and the village council have approach these surveyors and have inquired where the authority comes from and the claim is always that they come with the blessing, the permission from the lands and survey department and that they are surveying national land. It is very clear to us because not only are farms and milpas being affected but even residential areas where we have our own villages living, this is concerning to us because it impacts our livelihood and as we have seen throughout the covid pandemic, how valuable land is and how valuable the production of that land is for the food security of Mayan communities and Belizeans alike. We recognise that the government cannot feed our people, they cannot employ all of our people, they cannot rescue us from this economic spiral that we're experiencing but what we can do is to provide full security of our people by protecting their tenure on the land by protecting their use and productivity on the land and so this is very alarming for us that the government would allow such actions. We have obviously written a numerous communications to the government to put them on notice, we have inquired about the surveys, we have put the surveyors themselves on notice and we have of course reported to various bodies, one of which you perhaps are referring to is Interactive Commission of Human Rights. We reported to them and we made public in front of the attorney general's representative at crown council, Finnegan at that time, two days ago about these incursions, yet we haven't seen anything done and they were not able to give us anything substantive in terms of what they are going to do to address or arrest these incursions and so we're very concerned about that."

The Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcalde's Association are recommending that if any of the residents in the Mayan communities observe these survey activities, they should try and document it.

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