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Is Valentin Makin Actin’ the Fool?
posted (May 2, 2014)
On Wednesday, we told you about the letter that Valentin Makin, the ejected 1st Alcalde of Conejo Village, wrote to the Toledo Alcalde Association demanding an explanation about the procedures used to remove him from office. Well, the Association's president, Alfonso Cal, has responded to his request.

In a letter to Makin, Cal outlined the series of events which preceded his removal from office. He noted that Makin had to have known that this move was in the works given what had transpired in his presence.

According to Cal, two village meetings were held, where the allegation emerged that he unilaterally signed on behalf Conejo Creek Village that the community gives, quote, "unequivocal free, prior and informed consent for US Capital Energy Belize Ltd to continue its work and drilling on Maya Customary Lands." End quote.

Cal noted that in that meeting, a villager confronted him with the allegation that he'd betrayed the community, and that he denied it.

Cal continued that in a second meeting days later, Valentin Makin consistently denied that he signed any such document betraying his community, and that he promised he would visit the offices of the Toledo Alcalde Association and give a signed statement explaining the circumstances of the signing of that document.

The promise was that Makin would declare that it was not his intent to sign that Conejo gave consent to US Capital Energy to continue their operations.

Cal noted that the Second Alcalde and the Chairman tried to get Valentin Makin to go and make the statement, but he refused, and that's the reason why the villagers came together and held a meeting. Cal says that he personally visited Makin's house at the appointed time of the meeting, but he was told that Makin was "in Punta Gorda meeting with the oil company."

Cal says that at that meeting which Makin was absent, 51 out of 52 villagers voted that he immediately be removed as first Alcalde, and that's when Eufemio Makin was voted in as his replacement.

To silence this idea of a challenge to his removal, Cal said, quote, "It is shameful that you would claim an appointment by the Attorney General in Belmopan...to be more authoritative than the decision of the village that elected and removed you."

He also categorically denied that SATIIM has an influence on the Toledo Alcalde Association's decision, and that, the association was not the ones who removed him. Cal ends the letter by saying, quote, "Any Alcalde who treats his village as his personal property...or in any other way disrespects his role and his villagers, should fear removal…by the village he has failed to serve."

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