Maya Leaders Alliance Calls for C.C.J. Intervention
The omission of the Toledo Alcaldes Association from participating in the implementation of the F.P.I.C. Protocol is seen as an affront to the M.L.A. and T.A.A. According to Coc, the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice is expressly clear that as appellants both entities are to sign the document.
Cristina Coc
Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, M.L.A./T.A.A.
“The government has now removed, at the end of the protocol, they removed the clause where both parties were supposed to sign to bring into effect this consent protocol against the advice of the court, against the guidance of the court, and the reason we can think why they have removed that is because the court made it extremely clear that it is the T.A.A. and the M.L.A. that is to sign, they are the appellants. The other side, the Commissioner of Indigenous Peoples Affairs was insisting that the people to sign would be these many organizations, Maya organizations that are sympathetic to the government, who are creations of the government. This is the government’s attempt to create their own process and completely ignore the systems that already exist. And so they have now put the commencement clause to say that it takes effect upon filing to the C.C.J. The C.C.J., I don’t think is going to accept this because it goes against their very guidance. And so, in terms of process, we are going back. We have already communicated our descent to the court and to the Government of Belize and of course we expect the court, we are calling on the court to intervene.”
Late this evening, the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management, SATIIM, fired off a release in response to the M.L.A.’s position on the F.P.I.C. Protocol. The statement says, “The Julian Cho Society and the Toledo Alcaldes Association have usurped the Maya Leaders Alliance and made decisions, including the signing of a $1.8 million U.S. dollar contract, without the consent of all M.L.A. members or the Maya communities of Toledo. For seven years the JCS has called the T.A.A. the ‘collective governance institution’ of the Maya people.’ Shockingly, they perpetuated this misleading concept of ‘Alcaldes ‘ as supreme leaders in Maya villages. Yet the T.A.A. is not a Maya customary organization. And the M.L.A. is simply a membership association. The collective governance of the Maya people rests in each individual community. We, members of the Maya Leaders Alliance (M.L.A.), call on the Julian Cho Society and the Toledo Alcalde Association to refrain from issuing any position without full consultation – and consent – of its membership”.
