Over two hundred Mayas from the Toledo District gathered under tents in Santa Elena Village on Saturday. They waited for government representatives to meet and consult with them. But when the meeting started shortly after 9 on Saturday morning, there were no government officials in sight.
According to the lead attorney for Maya Land Rights for the government, Andrew Marshalleck, GOB's meeting was scheduled first, in Punta Gorda Town. But the Mayas say they want the government to meet them on their turf, and they won't allow themselves to be divided.
Courtney Menzies went south over the weekend to attend the meeting. Here is her story.
Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, MLA
"What do we want? We want the government here. We are sending a message to the government, you need to come and meet with our people and explain to us why you are taking away our land. What do we want? We want the government here, we want the government here."
Mayas from across Toledo came by the bus load to Santa Elena Village for one purpose: for the people to meet with the government to tell them that they reject their Draft Maya Customary Land Tenure Policy.
Last week, leaders of several of the villages tore up the draft proposal and summoned the government to meet them on their land.
Instead, the government held its own consultation session in Punta Gorda, 27 miles away. It's a move that the Mayas considered downright disrespectful.
Andres Cus, President, TAA
"As you can see, they don't have any respect, we can try our best, as much as we try our best to send information to them to be here, they do not show up. They are sending a message to us, to hell with you. Don't worry, we will send them a message like that pretty soon."
Resident
"I go and ask for help at the area representative, and they did not help me, not even a dollar. So I plant my yellow ginger, I plant my pepper, I grind them, I sun them, then I go and sell them. House to house, I go in every village to sell my yellow ginger and my pepper. So the government must stop claiming our land, as a Maya land. We have our rights to speak on our land, he must respect us. He must respect our land, he must stop claiming our land. This is all I want to tell him today, why didn't he come and talk to us face to face?"
"When they need me to do work for them, they come in front of my house and tell me, Mr Bol, let's go, I need you. Now where are they? They don't want to even see me anymore."
But the Mayas continued with their meeting, reigniting the fire among the people, and cementing their position that they will not concede to giving up even a centimeter of their land.
And that's why they have rejected what they view as the government's plan to restrict them in one kilometer circles, as explained by the Toledo Alcalde Association's attorney, Leslie Mendez.
Leslie Mendez, Attorney, TAA
"For the very first time in this process, in this almost 9 year process, we see the introduction of a circular area that the government plans to impose to define your lands. If you want more, they say, you can then come and you can apply."
"And to get it you'll have to prove that you were there undisturbed, nobody there, only the community, for 30 years. What we hope for, for today was that the government was able to hear directly from you. Hear what your response is for this proposal, hear you, see you and feel you today."
"Sometimes they think that it's only a few people, about ten people who think this way. So we wanted them to hear from you."
"And I think that at the heart of what I hear you say is that you see through this policy, you see that they are attempting to limit the extent of the lands you use and occupy, that's what you see."
Pablo Mis, MLA
"You will see the circles, those that are in yellow, those are your villages that you will get 1 kilometer that they're talking about and you will see that many of the land that you work on is left outside of that and the reason we went to court was because you said, I no longer can keep working on the land when I know it's threatened. That is why we went to court."
"When we went to the villages to consult on this thing, there was one thing that was clear, you wanted to come and hear you. We explained to the government that it is difficult for us to present to you this concept, this circular concept. We told them, we will bring the people, you come and talk to them. They are not here, but we are here, and we will always be here."
Resident
"You are now an existential threat to a people who have been self-sufficient for thousands of years. Even when the highest court of the land tells you to protect our inherent rights to ancestral lands, you seek to limit it by creating a circular fence, guarded by wolves whom you have befriended."
And while many villagers got the chance to address their people, the same message resonated over and over - and they decided to put that message in writing to send to the government. The declaration has ten points, reinforcing the need for consultation and respecting the process of the Indigenous peoples' decision making, which includes meeting as a collective group. They promise to work in good faith as long as the government reciprocates, but they made it clear that they will never stop fighting:
Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, MLA
"Right now you see a powerful solidarity movement of Maya people because enough is enough and we know that only the people can save the people."
"The government has not come on our lands, has not met with us, but the government knows that it needs us. The market in Punta Gorda, we supply the food for everybody in that town. You take our food, we take yours."
"You see us here now, we might be 3,000, the next time you see us, we're not going to be 3,000, we're going to double our numbers, every time we come to you, we're going to double our numbers in Belmopan, we're going to double our numbers in Belize City, because government, you have to know, Maya people are alive, and we are going to demand our justice and our respect."
"We are going to find you in our offices, we are going to find you on the streets, we are going to find you, government, you don't come to us, we are coming to you. In the words of the late Julian Cho, come hell or high water, we are going to fight."
According to Marshalleck, the purpose of hosting the consultation sessions in PG is to meet with smaller groups, but the Mayas say they prefer to meet as one large group. GOB held another meeting on Sunday, and will also be in PG this coming weekend.
