Dolores Balderamos: Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right
On the Phone: Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
On Sunday morning, tensions escalated between residents from the neighbouring villages of Laguna and Yemeri Grove in southern Belize. For some time now, there has been a land dispute between both villages and this is due to the lack of the delimitation of boundaries. The residents of Yemeri Grove are saying that Laguna is being allowed to expand into the area of dispute and so they went out to clear parcels of land as well. This is despite an announcement back in May that any activities in the area were to cease and desist. Today, News Five got an interview with Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Dolores Balderamos-Garcia who says that what happened over the weekend is unfortunate, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
On the Phone: Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs
“If the Laguna people, the Maya people of Laguna, are continuing as he puts it to expand, then he and his people can’t sit idly by. Now, the correct thing to have done – and please I am going to address both sides of this situation because government cannot take sides and we have to be very fair and reasonable. But let me say this, if you have a problem in thinking that one side is not complying with the request of government not to be expanding in any way or carrying on activities in an area that may be disputed, then the correct thing to do is for Mister Usher and his people to engage with government to report to us and we will send the relevant authorities to Toledo and the vicinity of those villages to see what is happening. Now, on the other side of the equation, I want to make this abundantly clear, the Government of Belize, myself and my ministry, we are not upholding the Maya people to make any kind of movement or expansion in an area that may be disputed. And the people of Laguna are well aware that there is some dispute in that area. So, both sides need to give the government an opportunity to get in there on the ground, see what is happening and then we will take action from there. Now, the delimitation of boundaries is something that needs to be done in the Toledo district and that won’t be done overnight. We will have to look at all the parties; we will have to look at Maya communal lands and the claims that can be made there under. But in any event, the boundary of a particular village – whether it be San Felipe, whether it be San Benito Poite, whether it be Laguna – those boundaries would have to be set in consultation with the government and based on the village in their village meeting saying okay we will like to claim x, y and z. Until that is done, we cannot uphold any party to be making claims that cannot be actually specified.”
