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Tonight we have the full report on the day from PG - a day that won't soon be forgotten:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
About an hour before the scheduled arraignment, a number of Maya supporters began lining the verandah of the Punta Gorda Magistrate's Court.

Right next door, police officers from different units had gathered. The Punta Gorda formation was reinforced with out-of-town officers from the Special Patrol Unit, ADU, and Mobile Interdiction Team.

In the back of one of the vehicles, the police had riot shields and helmets ready. They were prepared to contain any disruptive behavior from the Mayas, but on this day, all the spectators were calmly waiting to see their people charged and bailed.

Everyone was ready - that is - everyone except the defendants. The predawn police raid on Santa Cruz left a number of them without shirts or footwear - and they could not appear before the judge like that.

Pablo Mes - Program Officer, MLA/TAA
"Essentially there was a morning raid of the community of around 4 this morning. Right now there are some delay with the arraignment because the deputy commanding officer of the Punta Gorda Police Station have ask us to find clothing for 4 of the prisoners who cannot come before the magistrate without the proper clothing. So we are in a stall right now trying to find clothing for those 4 gentlemen."

So, to speed things along 4 of the supporters who went to court opted to strip down and take off their shirts, just so that the accused could be properly attired for the court. The wardrobe donors waited the entire time without shirts.

Police were then finally ready to march them over to the Magistrate's court. At the lead was firebrand Mayan Leaders Alliance spokesperson Cristina Coc. She was wearing an orange cloth over her nose and mouth, and she had on an interesting T-Shirt. Both suggested that she was tipping her hat to Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas, the Mayan resistance movement from Mexico. Other reports suggested that it was pure coincidence that Coc was wearing that shirt. The cloth over face was supposed to deal with germs, because she reportedly had a case of the flu.

But, while she was walking to the courtroom, the woman officer escorting her purposefully pulled down the cloth covering her face, an act to defy her defiance, as if to make sure the cameras caught her full profile.

All 12 defendants then waited at the entrance of the court until Magistrate Emmerson Banner was ready.

They then went in and exited after their charges were read to them. Their attorney told the press that the bail terms were tough to meet, but it could have been a worse if the Magistrate had been overly strict with the procedures.

Audrey Matura - Shepherd - Attorney for the Accused
"Bail was set at $8,000.00 initially. However, under the regulations of the instructions issued by the chief magistrate, if your bail is over $5,000, you must bring land paper. Now we are talking with people who are talking about communal land rights, so they don't have land papers. So, effectively you can't get bail. Now the magistrate, I made an application to him to ask him to use his discretion because he has the power to use his discretion and vary the term of bail - the amount. He can give either the $8,000 and split it into two surety which means that each person will be only signing to $4,000 each or he can reduce the bail to $5,000 or less so that you can access bail without getting land papers."

"I must say that initially he has indicate his style is that once he give bail - that's it. But I am glad that he heard our application and use his discretion, because as I pointed out to him under our constitution bail is a right. It is not a privilege. Your right to freedom is important. So no court system should give you some kind of bail or make some kind of provision that makes it beyond your reach."

As to the charges against her clients, Matura-Shepherd says that the laws treat an Alcalde of a Mayan Village like a local magistrate, who has such powers.

Audrey Matura - Shepherd - Attorney for the Accused
"What is unfair here, that people don't understand is that under our law, the inferior court's act, there is provision that every alcalde - every village that's run by an alcalde is a court system unto themselves. That alcalde sits as a magistrate. Ironically, in this matter the alcalde who head the proceedings that day has not been arrested and charged and they know why. But the chairman has been charged as well as the second alcalde has been charged. The truth is they have the right as they were having that morning a proceeding when this man interrupted and when this man stomped his hand on the desk and he threaten that if they didn't deal with his matter first, that he would get a firearm that was in his vehicle and he walked towards his vehicle. Why is it that the police don't want to investigate that?"

The question was put to the leaders, this issue of outsiders being allowed in Mayan communities. The people on the ground say that Mayan communities have been hostile to outsiders, especially those of creole origin, such much so that it has the appearance of racism. Before they could get to that, though, onlookers made it clear that they must answer to that issue. A few even tried to hijack the media's interview just to make sure.

Pablo Mes - Program Officer, MLA/TAA
"Our message again is, we are not broken. For over 500 years this has been done to us and today will not mark that day of breaking us. We will rise and we will be speaking together as a people and we will make the government know that this is not only against the Maya people, it is against all marginalize people in this world. Thank you."

Reporter
"Pablo when I left you yesterday, you were about to begin a community meeting in Santa Cruz. What was the outcome of that meeting sir?"

Pablo Mes - Program Officer, MLA/TAA
"Firstly, I am willing to respond to the questions one by one. I got confused with you question. Lastly I will say that we've always been a peaceful people. We've lived with everyone. We've shared with everyone and we've all said that we need to abide by the laws, by the rules of every sector of society. When our own community member's break laws wherever, we make sure that they understand that there is an obligation for us to own those wrongs and we expect this government to own those wrongs. We have been consistent. We have stood firm with marginalize communities in Belize, regardless of race and we will continue that struggle, that stance, not just for the Maya people, but for all marginalize and poorer in Belize."

Daniel Ortiz
"Do you concede that while that is the position at the helm of the Mayan communities, there may be those on the fringes who don't particularly perform the same declarations you have and this case the gentleman is alleging that the chairman was the one who showed racist attitudes towards his attempt to get a legitimate residency in Santa Cruz. Do you accept that that could happen?"

Pablo Mes - Program Officer, MLA/TAA
"I would say that the bottom-line in all of Belize, in all of the world - all over, the issue of racism exists. It exists."

Daniel Ortiz
"And the allegation is that it exists in this instance."

Pablo Mes - Program Officer, MLA/TAA
"Clearly you would see that the community wasn't acting together. They were acting on the principle of upholding customary law. That's very clear."

As you heard in our interview, there were PG residents of Creole and Garifuna decent who stood nearby to hear what the Maya leaders had to say about the arraignment and about the accusations of racism that Rupert Myles has made against the villagers of Santa Cruz. They refused to let the issue simply end with the answer from the representative of the Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcalde Association. One of them, Linda Smith, granted an interview in which she asserts that what Rupert Myles experienced in Santa Cruz is what other persons of different ethnicities regularly experience when they try to live in other Mayan communities. Here's how she explained it:

Linda Smith, resident - PG Town
"Many things have happened. Teachers' houses have been burnt down because they don't want them in the villages. But these things are muzzled and we don't get a chance to talk. I am not a lawyer, but I am here to stand up for everybody else that is not Belizean, because Creole, Mestizo, East Indian - all of us have a right and if that is their position - if you want communal land and you want the first word on what is in your village, then you cannot go to other parts of the country and expect that we welcome you with open arms because we need land too. We cannot get land out here because Mayan people are out here. We cannot get land in the villages because Mayan people are there too. So, what is left for the rest of the country?"

"I don't think that we should focused this on government, because this is happening right here in town. This is happening right here in the villages. This young lady has a personal story that she talks about her husband being attacked because he is not black, he is not Mayan, but he is Hispanic. So I thing you should listen to her too because not only a black thing, it's a Mestizo, East Indian things. Its anything as long as you are not Mayan, you are violated when you go in the villages."

The woman and her husband say that they have reported the incident to police. The problem is that they cannot offer any proof that her husband was stabbed in a sort of race crime as compared to a random act of violence.

And in a statement issued this evening, The Toledo Alcalde's Association announced today that the Alcalde of Santa Cruz village was arrested and charged with unlawful imprisonment along with the 12 Mayans who were arrested the day before.

The Association makes it clear that they did not appreciate the pre-dawn police raid to round up the accused persons, some of them without shoes or shirts. They also allege that 3 of the 13, and the wife of one of the men were injured during that operation. The Association asserts also that police denied the injured woman her rights to make a complaint against the police for allegedly injuring her.

The Association also restated their position that Rupert Myles allegedly threatened them with a weapon. The statement also repeats that they only detained him as a last resort only after trying to reason with him for months after - they say - he built his house on the grounds of the Uxbenka Archaeological site, and during the course of its construction, he allegedly bulldozed and damaged a portion of the cultural monument.

The TAA's statement also implies that the only reason that the police swept in and started to take criminal action against them was because Prime Minister Dean Barrow publicly condemned the action taken against Myles as "outrageous" and "absolutely indefensible". We requested a comment from the ranking officers in the south and at PG police, but they told us that "orders from high up" was that the Police Press Officer, Raphael Martinez, would handle all inquiries into this arrest of the 13 Mayans. When we spoke with Martinez today he told us that he would be unable to comment.