Will Maya Leaders Attend G.O.B. Consultation in PG on Saturday?
On the phone: Christina Coc
And, as it turns out, G.O.B.’s planned public consultation in Punta Gorda on Saturday will be a bust. The Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcaldes Association have scheduled their own public session for nine a.m. Saturday in Santa Elena Village. Christina Coc, the spokesperson for MLA and TAA informed News Five that they advised G.O.B. against holding the public consultation in Punta Gorda. Coc says, if Minister Dolores Balderamos-Garcia and her team want to meet with villagers they are welcome to attend the session in Santa Elena Village. We spoke with Coc over the phone.
On the phone: Christina Coc, Spokesperson, MLA/TAA
“This is a government policy that is being proposed. The responsibility and the duty of the government to clearly inform the people whose lives are going to be ultimately affected by this policy and in particular by the new insertion to limit the lands of the Maya villages. It is incumbent upon the government to inform the communities. Failing that, it is also the responsibility of the Toledo Alcalde Association who works with all alcaldes of all forty-one Maya villages to bring the attention of the people to a proposal that is ultimately going to change their lives.
Having now canvassed all thirty-four villages, the unanimous position is that they reject this new proposal. Their demand is that the government comes to explain their policy to the people, not by dividing the leadership, not by meeting with leaders but to meet with the entire community. The TAA has taken it upon itself to convene members of the forty-one villages in the village of Santa Elena at nine a.m. tomorrow and we are calling on the government to come and explain their policies, come and hear the people’s voices. This is what the government always hides behind that it is the MLA and TAA acting irresponsibly, that are inciting unrest. Look it is the policy of the government that is inciting this unrest. Unfortunately, they still went ahead to send invitation to community leaders. Community leaders have now come back with that invitation to say look, we are now going to write he government and tell them we are not going to accept this. We want them to come and meet with us a collective people. These leaders have sent a letter back in response to that invitation to ask the government to please come and meet with us as a people.”
