How Do You Stop the Land Grab?

Cristina Coc

So is there any recourse that can be taken by the Maya communities to halt the ongoing survey exercises and land distribution?  According to Coc, a framework for dispute resolution has been agreed to by all parties before the Caribbean Court of Justice to address these very matters and complaints have been made on several occasions regarding these activities.

Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, Maya Leaders Alliance

“We have as you know, we have been in communication with the Caribbean Court of Justice since 2015.  We have retained supervision of the implementation of their own order and we have, at times, biannual or sometimes even more, quarterly meetings with the Caribbean Court of Justice to review progress or lack thereof.  We have, time and time again, raised with the Caribbean Court of Justice these incursions on Maya lands.  We have raised time and time again, the violations of our customary rights to these lands by third parties, outsiders and by state agents and they have been cautioned many times.  In fact, we arrived at a dispute resolution mechanism framework, a framework that would guide how these kinds of disputes would be addressed.  The government has since appointed an authority to investigate any and all disputes arising from Maya village lands.  Now the authority is not given the authority to determine whether those lands are in fact Maya lands or are in fact national lands because that would only and could only be determined out of the delimitation process that we are currently engaged in.”