MLA charges that DAVCO is dividing the indigenous community

Cristina Coc

The issue of oil exploration in the south is boiling over, but there is another hot-button matter which is the communities in the south are facing. As we reported on Tuesday, the District Association of Village Councils convened a meeting in Big Falls over the weekend which saw the participation of chairpersons from across Toledo.  It has been widely speculated that functionaries of the government are being sent to the meetings to create a rift within the various communities where it concerns the issue of communal rights.  The Maya Leaders Alliance was present at that meeting and according to spokesperson, Cristina Coc; the questions being asked are not in line with what the real issues are.

Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, Maya Leaders Alliance

“It was quite evident that this was an extension of the recent an continuous effort on the part of the state to create ethnic divide and to create a situation where people are asking the wrong questions.  Basically, the village council was promoting a wrong agenda that said, “Do you support communal lands or not?”  I think that that is far too simplified to ask a community.  I think what you should ask the community is, with the understanding what communal rights are to the lands.  I think that what they should be asking the community is do you want to have rights, do you want to hold those rights and ownership to the land that you currently use and occupy or do you want to give up those rights?  What we explained to the community was that though they have rights to the land, though they have ownership of use and occupation of those lands, they also have the right to give up those rights, to opt out of those rights and be able to declare whomever it is they choose to manage and control those lands on their behalf.  Though there are consequences and so because of those consequences, particularly on livelihood of Maya people who continue to practice customary use of the land we encourage them strongly to hold a meeting with their entire community and in their opening remarks of the chairman he indicated that this community was between two thousand, five hundred to three thousand residents and that was the population.  There was no where even a half of that population was in attendance of the meeting and so we encourage that they hold another meeting and not hold a decision at that moment but hold another meeting without the outsiders, including the Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcaldes Association and make very clear to their community what the decision that they are asking them to take is.  Unfortunately, we didn’t hear a lot from the residents of Big Falls.  We heard a lot from invited guests like Alejandro Vernon, invited guests like Joseph Estephan, invited guests like Reynaldo Ico from Silver Creek Village and other non-Big Falls residents.”

Residents of the various communities within the Toledo District, following the DAVCO meeting, are reportedly being asked to respond to a survey as to whether or not they are in support of oil exploration.