Human Development, Indigenous People’s Affairs Ministry Tours the South

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

Senior officials from the Ministry of Human Development and Families and Indigenous People’s Affairs met with its staff in the south as well as residents. There is need for infrastructure, basic equipment and other resources to facilitate the work of the department in the south. But among the many issues that came up during the visit is that many persons are without basic forms of identification. This falls under the mandate of the Indigenous People’s Affairs portfolio. 

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister for Indigenous People’s Affairs

“The whole indigenous people’s affairs portfolio doesn’t only have to do with the Maya land rights case. There are many community issues that need to be addressed and one of the issues that came up is that many of our people…I don’t want to say that they have been rendered stateless, but it is almost that bad because they have lost their white birth paper, the old one, their social security cards are expired so they were not able to register to vote. And I think there were about six or eight persons came up to me in Conejo right after the ceremony and the festivities and they explained the very same circumstance. So it is something that I have pledged that myself and Minister of State Gilroy, we will do our best to bring it up.”