Greg Ch’oc: “I Have Never Abandoned My Principles.”

Greg Ch’oc

Before being appointed the Commissioner of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Greg Ch’oc was known nationally as a fire brand activist who championed the Maya communal land rights. But, after being called in to work with the Briceño administration on the implementation of F.P.I.C., there are those who say Ch’oc has abandoned his people. Well, Minister Balderamos-Garcia says she is disappointed by the notion, and Ch’oc took some time to respond to his critics as well.

Dolores Balderamos- Garcia

Dolores Balderamos- Garcia, Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs

“When you might hear certain individuals say that they don’t want Mr. Ch’oc, they don’t want Mr. Ch’oc, what I want to say to you is that the Government believes that we have good worker, a good advisor, and a good technical person in the person of Mr. Choc. So, I want to make it very abundantly clear this afternoon, so my belief is if you hear certain people, a minority, say that they don’t like Mr. Choc, well maybe we need to sit down at the table and we need to talk. As a woman, I was disappointed when I heard them calling Mr. Choc a traitor. Mr. Choc was at the beginning of the fight for Maya land rights, at the beginning.”

Greg Ch’oc, Commissioner of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs

“I am humbled at the opportunity to complete a work I started twenty, twenty-five years ago. What I have said throughout the villages of Toledo I want to reiterate here, I have never abandoned. I have never abandoned the principle that guided my work.  I have never abandoned the respect that the member of each community deserves.”