SATIIM and the Leaders of the Mayan buffer communities have filed an application for an injunction block US Capital Energy from drilling inside the Sarstoon Temash National Park when their permit expires at the end of the Month. They claim government gave the oil company an extension on their drilling permit last week, which is supposed to end on April 30.
SATIIM's statement from last week says that the Mayan Communities views this "extension" as a direct contravention of the judgment handed down on Thursday, April 3. That statement, said, "We condemn any decision by Cabinet that seeks to circumvent the declarations and order of Justice Arana."
It ended ominously by stating, "Should cabinet not rescind its decision we along with our communities will take all necessary action to block US Capital Energy from entering our Maya Customary Land."
But while they've taken that stance, 7News has been checking into their facts as they've presented them, and both the Chief Forestry Officer and the attorney for US Capital says that the Mayans are mistaken. There is no extension, and according to the Wilbur Sabido, the Chief Forestry Officer, there hasn't even been a discussion with the company about that extension.
And in relation to the counter by Michael Peyrefitte, the attorney for US Capital, who said that SATIIM misrepresented the facts of that meeting where the oil company's representatives gave their interpretation of Arana Judgment, the organization says that it did no such thing.
A joint communique from all the communities says, "We want to state categorically that those who attended the meeting from our communities did so on their own behalf, and not on the behalf of our communities… We have confirmed among ourselves that none of us (leaders of the claimant villages) attended."
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