Did TAA Jump the Gun on Draft Land Policy?

On Tuesday, the Toledo Alcaldes Association issued a stern release denouncing government’s draft Maya Customary Land Policy.  The TAA’s primary concern was that it was not consulted prior to the Briceño administration proposing to recognize only zero point seven-five miles to one point eight-five miles from the center of the village, depending on the size.  As such, it rejected the twenty-one page provisional document.  According to the Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, the TAA has jumped the gun on the issue.

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs

“There a little ahead of themselves because every single iteration or every single version of the Maya Customary Land Tenure Policy has been consulted and we continue the consultations, but it is for the Government of Belize to make proposals on which we will consult.  I am saying to the Maya Leaders [Alliance], I am saying to the [Toledo Alcaldes] Association, I am saying to the Julian Cho Society, and all interested parties, whether Maya or non-Maya, we will consult.  And that’s the situation, however, there is an ongoing dynamic of a sort of a pull, a to and fro, in which we believe, as government, that sometimes the MLA grouping, as we have come to call them, I believe that sometimes they get a little ahead of themselves.  But it is for government, as I have said from the very inception of this portfolio which is now three years old, from the very inception of this portfolio, I made it very clear that it is for government to try to balance competing interests.  Now, when we do decide on the extent of the boundaries of a village which, again, we will consult on it.  When we do decide on it after consultations, we are required to consult but we are not required to give everybody everything that they may wish.”