Maya Land Rights Case is Back before the C.C.J.

The ongoing matter between the Maya community and the Government of Belize over the implementation of the Caribbean Court of Justice’s Consent Order was heard this morning before the C.C.J. Both parties provided a status update to the court on the progress made in implementing the Consent Order. On April twenty-second, 2015, the parties in this case entered into a Consent Order where G.O.B. agreed to develop a mechanism to recognize the land rights of the Indigenous Maya people. Attorney Leslie Mendez represents the Maya community.

Leslie Mendez

Leslie Mendez, Attorney-at-law

“We have filed reports in this matter to update the court and I am sure that, at least from our position, your honors can deduce that we consider the state of this process to be rather in a state of chaos at the moment. From our perspective, we had predicted this, your honors, ever since we noticed that when there was a change of administration we noticed that there was this increased interest in the internal affairs of the Maya people.  We brought this repeatedly to the attention of the courts because we did consider that this was threatening the sustainability and stability of this process. We saw that the commissioner and the ministry were exhibiting an insistence in choosing who the representatives of the Maya people are. Once again for us, and the experts agree that it is not for the government to act as an arbiter of legitimacy among the community as to who their representatives are. It is not for the government to decide who the winners and losers are among the communities and we say that in fact this is what is happening. We have highlighted in our response what we think is a glaring deficiency in the opinion provided by Dr. Figueroa because we say that even though we must accept the position that the government has no place in choosing the representatives, your honors. The impact of her position is one that leaves the door wide open for the government to in fact do just that.”