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6 months ago, on June 24, it made headline news when Cristina Coc, and 12 villagers of Santa Cruz, collectively known as the Santa Cruz 13, were arrested and charged for unlawful imprisonment. That's after they handcuffed and tried to kick Creole Belizean Rupert Myles out of the village.

He reported them to police, and investigators took swift action against the Santa Cruz 13, marching them before the Punta Gorda Magistrates Court. Well today, after a flurry of adjournments, the 13 Mayan defendants reported to court only to find out that the prosecution withdrew the charge of unlawful imprisonment.

It's an important vindication for the Maya who maintained that they did not break any law when they detained Myles for allegedly damaging their Uxbenka Mayan monument. We had publicly speculated that the criminal case was losing strength, and today's outcome is being interpreted by the defendants as a step toward complete vindication. Cristina Coc, one of the accused, told us how the Santa Cruz 13 is preparing to beat the prosecution at the next adjournment:

Cristina Coc - One of the Santa Cruz 13

"As you're fully aware we've been going back and forth to court for some time now, it's been almost 6 months since June 20th when the said incident happened; that we've been brought to court on charges of illegal imprisonment and then a new charge was added after our second court hearing, that of common assault. Today we learnt this is the first time we've been given this closure first of all on the matter and we learnt that from the prosecutor that the charge of illegal imprisonment has been withdrawn."

Daniel Ortiz

"It must be good news for you all that this unlawful imprisonment charge has been withdrawn."

Cristina Coc - One of the Santa Cruz 13

"We've always known we've always maintained that we were never guilty of that charge and in fact we were very confused of that charge because as far as we know, we've never heard of such a charge before; no one was illegally imprisoned. The Alcalde's have their jurisdiction under the magistrate's jurisdiction as well where in their communities they have the jurisdiction to arrest and fine where they feel that a breach of the law has taken place. We never felt that charge would have stood and as we thought, it has now been withdrawn. Yes, we are indeed very pleased that as we had long thought, this charge would not hold."

"Our lives has been put on hold for the most part, for a crime that we are being accused of that quite honestly, we're quite innocent of but we will let the court decide that because; as is the case with everything in this community and within our communities, we are subject to the law as we are going to abide by the law and we're going to let the courts decide the innocence of our people and our community as a whole."

The case goes back to court on February 17 when all 13 Mayans will face a full trial for common assault. 4 of the 13 will also have to answer to the additional charge of aggravated assault. Today, when their accuser, Rupert Myles, exited court, we asked him for comment on the fact that 13 Maya who detained him will no longer face trial for that charge. He declined saying that he is leaving it in the hands of the police who made the decision from a more informed position that he is.

When we asked the PG Police commander about the withdrawal, he told us that it was the result of memorandum sent to them from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution. He did not provide any details as to what the memo said.

So, while the Santa Cruz 13 inches closer to an acquittal, Myles is still living on the hill that he villagers assert is a part of the Uxbenka Site. Today, Cristina Coc told us that us that they interpret the delay by the state in ejecting him off the mound as unfair treatment under the law:

Cristina Coc - One of the Santa Cruz 13

"You know it is amazing how the force of law can come down on people on the one hand and on the other hand, an incident like that can be completely dismissed and completely prolonged . Rupert Myles is still as far as my knowledge goes is still living on the mound on our Mayan Temple. He still continues to develop it, he continues to plant, he continues to chop; he continues to do everything that he set out to do to begin with. And there has been absolutely no action on the part of the Institute of Archaeology or NICH and we have been through our attorneys, been trying to get in touch with the Institute of Archaeology to ask and to get information on what steps have been taken. We have not had any response, whether verbally or in writing, we have been writing them for some time now. So as far as we know, no concrete action has been taken, he is still there. The community is still quite agitated by that, quite honestly, we believe that an injustice has been served to the community by prosecuting them for protecting what is rightfully their heritage and at the same time, no action has been taken against the person who is violating."

But, no matter what the Department of Archaeology and the Maya have to say, Rupert Myles, the man at the centre of the controversy, is not budging. He told us today that he remains convinced that this is still a racial issue. He told us that he is fighting not only for his rights as a Belizean, but those of his Maya wife, and children who he suspects will be treated differently due to the dual ethnicity of their parents.

Here's how he explained it:

Rupert Myles - Complaint against Santa Cruz 13

"I'm not at Santa Cruz to live because I want to go to Santa Cruz to go live on hill top. I am at Santa Cruz the live because I know that the way how they people the go fight for communal land, if they do what they do to me right, what about 10 years from now if they get communal land? They no just a tie up somebody and aggravate, they will kill you and dash you out."

"Most of my kids are from a Maya family and they consider me as a black man right. My mom is East Indian and my family is Chi. I no stand up that well, a black man want to come in and do this. Next thing, if you check the constitution of this country, say that you could live where ever you choose to right and at the moment, I chose to live right there at Santa Cruz. And I don't consider myself that I do any damage or damage to anybody, you understand. Because I just the try do my life, same with them and what I would wish for the people in this country and they Maya people, they own land paper. I have, I know what the value of it and if I have to stand up against a group of Maya people like that for prove to the rest of the country and to the rest of this country. Because if we could accept them out there to work amongst we and we can't go live amongst them, they can come out and live amongst us and when we try go live amongst them, they do them things they. No correct, what will happen years from now or 5 years from now and next year from now to our kids? When the chairman tell me like this, he the tell me that no girl in the village have right. When the girl find somebody from any other village, they have to come out right and I told him that day, that I will contest that and that's what I'm doing. Nobody have to make their kids come out of no village because they find and I tell him that I will come live in your village and I don't do that to offend and not to create problem with nobody else but I'm contesting that."

He today showed us documents as proof that he is the owner of numerous parcels of land in different parts of the country. He told us that he is not fighting for land in Santa Cruz. He claims that he is making a stand merely on the principle of the cultural injustices that he perceives is happening.