“The Maya People are not asking for a State within a State.”

We also asked Coc about comments made by Minister Dolores Balderamos-Garcia in mid-November. The minister said that the MLA grouping cannot have the entire Toledo district. Minister Balderamos-Garcia went on to say that the government would be the one to impose a limit. Coc first clarified that the Maya people are not asking for a state within a state before saying that for any lands taken away from the Maya people there will need to be compensation.

Cristina Coc

Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, MLA/TAA

“The Maya people are not asking for a state within a state. Let’s just put that out there and put that to rest. However, when you make a statement like that, you really have to be truthful to the public. And the truth is that what is recognized is the customary use and occupation of those lands and territories by Indigenous peoples, by Maya people. And that is to be determined through an agreed process of identifying where those lands are, demarcating it, titling it and providing the protections necessary for it. Now, if after the end of that process, it is identified that the Maya people actually are using and occupying 90 percent of the Toledo district, then it’s not a matter of whether you think they are deserving of it or worthy of it, or whether you think that that is too much for the Maya people. The basis upon which this recognition and this affirmation rest is on the evidence that Indigenous Peoples, Maya people are using and occupying this space. And so, if the government feels that after the process is completed that there is evidence that they are using this space, and that the government feels that they need to reduce this space, then the Constitution provides for that. But the Constitution provides that lands cannot be arbitrarily deprived of any land owner, whether that’s by a collective nature that the Maya people would have, or by an individual private property owner. They cannot be deprived of the land without reasonable compensation within a reasonable time. And so it’s important for those in office to really reckon with this and really educate the public to understand that the government can take those lands or reduce or limit or take some of it away, but they must reasonably compensate the Maya people and they must do that only for a public interest.  So for instance, you could not just carve out a, uh, a portion of the Maya lands to give to your friends or to give to individuals. It has to surpass the threshold of what is the public interest. And the Maya people have to be reasonably compensated.”