This week, news coming out of the Toledo District is that the community of Barranco, which is Garifuna, and Midway, which is Maya, are in an ongoing land dispute. And before, things get out-of-control, representatives of the Garifuna community are calling for a resolution.
As far as we could tell, the dispute goes that Barranco Village was formed in the 1800s by the indigenous Garifuna peoples who settled in Belize. Midway was allegedly formed many years later when prominent members of the Garinagu allowed their Mayan brethren to settle on their farmland.
We fast forward to today, where there the Caribbean Court of Justice ruling from 2015, which orders the Government should respect and properly demarcate Maya communal lands in the Toledo District. The Garifuna are claiming that this has emboldened the residents of Midway to claim territory that should be there, and they are suggesting that the Government is enabling the encroachment.
In a press release dated March 11th, 2021, the Barranco Village Council announced that the Lands Department has sent a letter to one of their villagers to "cease and desist" from carrying out any development on a plot of land that has always been a part of traditional Barranco lands.
Their press release says quote, "Our main aim... is to urge more appropriate steps that the Department could take to maintain peaceful relations between two neighboring villages-Barranco and Midway" End quote.
We have seen another document that suggests that the Lands Department has given them an audience on this matter and that there are preliminary steps to defuse the situation. That's the same sort of action that the National Garifuna Council is recommended, and yesterday, our colleagues from Krem News got a chance to speak with one of their leaders. She said that the Maya and the Garinagu should be able to easily find a common cause in their struggles as indigenous peoples. Here's that interview:
Yesterday, the Government sent out a press release saying that Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Technology had met wmembers of the National Garifuna Council. A release says "issues relating to education and culture were discussed as well as those of national importance. Hon. Fonseca expressed his full support for and commitment to the continued work of the NGC in the spirit of… One Love!" End quote.
