PM Briceño to M.L.A.: We Don’t Need Your Approval

Today, Prime Minister John Briceño chimed in on the issue of the Maya Leaders Alliance and the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs over the Free, Prior, Inform Consent Protocol.  He says that the government is the administrator for all lands in Belize, including the Toledo District – not the M.L.A.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I think they will not be happy until we give them over the Toledo district and that’s never going to happen under a P.U.P. government. What we have done is what the C.C.J. has asked of us, is to set the F.P.I.C. – the Free, Prior, Informed Consent – which is basically a mechanism where we go with them or anybody that wants to do any kind of projects in that area that they can go and present it to them. But it is not a matter that they are going to have a monopoly as to what is going to take place in that area. Toledo is a part of this country and as a government; we have a responsibility to the people of Toledo. The consent, the way it has been structured or set by the C.C.J., is basically a process of where we go. It is not a process where they have any kind of monopoly as to say if you are going to put a road, they have to approve. That’s not the case and it will not happen under a P.U.P. government. We have a responsibility to this country, we have a responsibility to the people that live in the Toledo district, and we have a responsibility to the Maya people to try to improve their lives. It is not only the M.L.A. The M.L.A. is an association. We have that responsibility and we are not going to abdicate our responsibility to the people of the Toledo district.”