Maya leaders say they want rights, not separatism

Leaders of Toledo’s Maya population continue to press their claims for a larger say in their future. For the second time this month a delegation visited the city, this time meeting for a roundtable discussion with the press. News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports.

Panellist #1
“We can all be Belizeans but we don’t all have to be exactly the same. A truly Belizean society needs to be one that’s inclusive.”

Panellist #2
“We are challenged as a nation when we see many people from outside coming to Belize to own vast tracts of land when Belizeans can’t even own land.”

Panellist #3
“This is not a political thing. We have to fight any government which will take place; we have to continue until we win this right.”

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning, community leaders from the Toledo district met in Belize City for a roundtable discussion on Mayan rights to land.

Cristina Coc, Director, Julian Cho Society
“The story will be the same story. This is how we use the land, this is how we live, this is what we know.”

According to Cristina Coc, Director of the Julian Cho Society, the public awareness event was designed to defend the legal action taken by the villages of Conejo and Santa Cruz to protect the land Maya have used for centuries.

Cristina Coc
“We’re not here to ask to be a separate nation state. We are not here to ask to remove the Government’s involvement in Toledo. As a matter of fact, we are here to say that we need to be a part and parcel of the development of Toledo; that our way of using the land, based on our traditional ways is quite different from the rest of Belize and that is what makes us Maya.”

The Julian Cho Society considers lack of access to land a breech of human rights. Central government has proposed a title system for villages who residents want to won their own parcels. While Coc respects that right, she contends communal land is the only way to rescue Mayan traditions.

Cristina Coc
“The twenty, thirty leased parcels are not adequate for their livelihood, their way of rotational farming, their way of collecting medicinal plants, of hunting or fishing. We have noticed that the leasing in the Toledo district, the distribution of land leases has been uneven and unfair. As a matter of fact, it has been used as political capital by the two Ministers in our district. A lot of times if you are affiliated with one of these Ministers, then you get the choicest land and you get the biggest piece. And if you are not you don’t get anything.”

“And all we are asking for is to have some degree of control over the development that happens in Toledo, over the development that has impacts on our lives.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona