Things are becoming more complicated even for the BTB where the issue isn't only land but maya iconography. But in Indian Creek, it's escalated to rangers being detained and fined.
The manager of Boden Creek Land and Cattle Company Property, Robert Pennill, told us this evening that on Wednesday, the rangers who work on the property found the sticks about a mile inside of one of the entrances, Fig Tree Road.
No one claimed the sticks, since the rangers would have to verify that it belonged to that person, and so Pennill gave them the permission to cut it up into pieces.
Well, that upset the villagers and the Alcaldes called a meeting at which they summoned the rangers. After an argument, one ranger was reportedly detained and fined $55 by the chairman of the village, not the Alcalde. Penil then alleges that Cristina Coc, from the Maya Leaders Alliance, broke the chains and padlocks at all three of the property's entrances and trespassed on the land to take pictures of the broken bush sticks.
Penil then told us that they have since made a police report about the damage done to the three chains and 6 padlocks as well as the trespassing.
We sought comment from Coc, and she explained that she was made aware of the incident yesterday, where a villager was granted a customary permit to harvest the bush sticks and when he was preparing to collect the sticks, he saw them cut up into pieces. Since only rangers were there, the Alcalde called them into the meeting, for which Coc was present.
She then told us that she did not damage any of the property and that she doesn't believe she was trespassing since she claims the property is customary land and can be used by the Mayas for the village's development. Of course, that is a matter of dispute since the rights to the private estate predate the recognition of customary land rights.
Coc also said that she cannot speak on the detention of the ranger since she believes that is from a separate incident.
The estate covers 12,000 acres.
