Email

Print

The Government of Belize and Maya from Southern Belize are back in court this week, arguing over customary land rights. Attorney Antoinette Moore is representing villagers from twenty-three villages in the Toledo district as well as several village alcades who are asking the court to protect their Constitutional rights to property and equality. This morning Moore maintained that her clients are not asking for anything they aren’t entitled to.

Antonette Moore, Attorney for Mayans
“They are asking for protection from infringements upon their land until their lands can be titled through the government of Belize. This is a matter in which there has been some controversy as to whether this is imposing upon all the villagers the customary land tenure system of the Maya and it certainly is not. In my opening I said very clearly to the court that the claimants are seeking protection until the lands can be titled if they so choose. So if the villages determine that they do not wish to pursue a communal title and under the customary land tenure system there is no imposition, they certainly are free to do whatever they have to do.”

Janelle Chanona,
Miss Moore can you clarify who exactly you are seeking protection from?

Antonette Moore,
“From the government of Belize and the infringements, unfortunately that have occurred over many years. The one primary example which really brought us back to this court is what happened in Golden Stream. In Golden Stream there was a non-Mayan individual who claims to have a lease however there is no evidence, now that we are at trial, that he has a lease other than him saying that.

The mere claim of this individual to have a paper lease was seen as superior to the customary land tenure of this Mayan farmer and the village. And so that is really what started this, in a sense. Obviously you all know that this is a matter that goes back many years but what started this round of the dispute was this incident but there are many, perhaps many is going too far, but there are a number of instances where Maya farmers are treated in a discriminatory manner. They are treated as if their property rights are less than the property rights of other Belizeans who have a paper perhaps. And so this is why now they are seeking to have a paper and protection over their land so that their land rights and other rights will not be infringed upon.”

And paper is not only at the heart of this case, it is threatening to drown the court. Moore has filed no less than fifty-one affidavits from villagers and alcades as well as experts on the history of the Maya and their occupation in what is now Southern Belize.