Mora Wanted to Make Point About Garinagu Experience

Eldred Neal

According to Mora, he was doing two things: the first was to attempt to find out the reason why the P.S.U. did not support Fayne Nicasio, a Garifuna woman, for the post of president of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize. It’s a post Mora himself held until last December. After winning a vote for a second term at their A.G.M., it was found that according to the Constitution of the N.T.U.C.B., Mora could not run for office on the executive a third time. He says he was standing up for the smaller trade unions in the executive, but did not find a willing ally in the P.S.U.’s leader, Eldred Neal. The second was to attempt to educate Neal and Westby about the history of the Garinagu and provide insight as to why, as he suggested, they were and are “power-hungry.”

Marvin Mora

Marvin Mora, General Secretary, Belize Energy Workers’ Union

“In reality the conversation never started there; that conversation had started like almost a whole hour before between me and Mr. Neal, and of course other people were there. Also the conservation was about one hour and a half long or more. So that six minutes – anything that is said there can be taken out of context, because the conversation was extremely long. We were trying to address all types of issues and most of them that had to do with the fracturing of the N.T.U.C.B. and the reason why the N.T.U.C.B. is not really performing as the way it is expected. But to bring you back to your question, you asked a question that I am glad to answer. We had discussed this already in several programs and Miss Myrna Manzanares had mentioned that there were certain things that were being done in the colonial days, and these things transcend up into today’s day. These things were done in a manner to divide our people, so they could be ruled; so that they could be subdued. Part of that were rules like that one or laws that affected specific cultures – in that case would be the Garinagu. That they were not allowed a certain point time in the City and if they found them here they would lock them up – that’s part of our history. And how that transcend into today – I was trying to make a point, you know; to try to bring it to him, and if you can hear in the background, I keep telling him, it’s a cultural thing you know – but he insisted otherwise, stating things [which were] his view; which I do not share which the utilities unions do not share as well. The point I’m trying to make though is that we were taking it back in a way, all the way back, so that we could try to figure out a way to bridge the gaps.”