When government decided to move to Belmopan in August of 1970, then Premier George Price in his famous poem, "limestone pillars of Belikin", he saw Belmopan as the "restoration of ancient Mayan splendor" in this national city. And in many ways, the stewards of the garden city have lived up to that promise developing Belmopan in a neat and orderly fashion. But maintaining order in a country where disorder prevails has produced its share of conflicts and today many are at odds with the tight button policies of Belmopan Mayor Tony Chanona.
And while Chanona seems to sweat no fever for his adversaries, tonight, he could run up into an ethnic conflict that's beyond even his far ranging talent for appeasement. Alfonso Noble reports that Mayans who have moved to Belmopan looking for land and opportunity are in danger of being swept off the land they call home and a provocative letter from the Mayor to the Prime Minister has raised many eyebrows and shown that Price's vision of "Mayan splendor" doesn't count for much these days.
Alfonso Noble Reporting, [From Belmopan City]
These people mostly Mayas from the Toledo District have come here to the periphery of Belmopan City looking for economic opportunities and they live in poverty and the city council says they are a blight to the city.
A letter from the Mayor to the Prime Minister says quote "we have observed a steady migration of Indians from the Toledo district and Central Americans, illegally clearing and constructing bush huts on the periphery of the Salvapan/Maya Mopan zones of Belmopan." It goes on to say_ "we need the help of government oversight agencies like the Dragon Unit or Police, Human Development Department and Immigration agents to conduct an intensive ‘clean sweep' operation to document this illegal activity and to dismantle and relocate these persons back to where they came from."
Those explosive words have incensed Mayan rights advocates.
Valentino Shal,
"This is something that's really shocking to me."
Valentino Shal is a Mayan rights advocate and a Mopan Maya who lives and works in Belmopan. As the slogans, pictures and mantras on his wall make clear, he's a social justice agitator and a watchdog for his people but this is one attack, he didn't see coming
Valentino Shal,
"I never would have expected Mayor Chanona to be thinking in this fashion in regards to the people living in the Maya Mopan and Salvapan area especially in regards to the Mayan people. The letter clearly borders on racism and it's very discriminatory to me. It's aggressive in nature and this is no way for a Mayor to be behaving in regards to the Mayas of Belize. I mean he refers to the people as Indians from the Toledo District. Come on Mr. Chanona, this is 2004 we no longer use ‘Indians' in our everyday language, we refer to them as the indigenous people of Belize. And the spirit of the letter is overly aggressive suggesting that Dragon Unit forces be used to forcibly remove these people and dismantle their huts and send them back to where they came from. I mean Mayas are Belizeans; they occupied Belmopan before there was a Belmopan. You can't just forcibly remove people out of their bush huts as he calls them. A house is a home and people live there. That is not how you deal with people."
Anthony Chanona, Belmopan City Mayor
"Maybe someone people say Belizeans and we are Belizeans all and we don't say African-Belizeans or we don't say Mestizo-Belizeans. I have always known persons from the Toledo District of Maya ancestry to be referred to as Indians and I maybe need to find the politically correct way of referring to those Belizeans. What do you call them? If there is a word to refer to them other than Indians…Indigenous people?…Well maybe I am not the politician to know all the politically correct answers."
And while Chanona does not have all the politically correct answers, he does propose an answer to this problem. In his letter to the PM, his intention is clear: 'dismantle and relocate these persons back to where they came from.' When he spoke to us however he ratcheted down his rhetoric considerably.
Anthony Chanona,
"We need to document and regularize but we do not believe that just by allowing you to squat is the way to deal with this issue. There is no intention to root out by force but we are saying the trend must be arrested and dealt with."
Valentino Shal,
"If the people are a stain to the city then the Mopan name to Belmopan is also a stain to the name of the city. And if he is going to forcibly remove anyone then I might have to leave Belmopan because I live and work here. And I work for the government as well and I know a lot of other people, senior professionals working for the government, who are Mayas and we don't refer to ourselves as Indians and we live in Belmopan and a lot of them live in the area that he sees as a problem. We have high-ranking police officers and I even have family living there myself."
Anthony Chanona,
"The problem we have, we would say, is destabilization of the normal process to acquire land in Belmopan. We have been struggling with this problem whereby persons migrate to the periphery of Belmopan and build thatch houses and have children under those conditions. It speaks to public health issues but more importantly it speaks to perception that if you break the law you are going to be regularized by getting a piece of land. If you are squatting, you will not be allocated a piece of land. You either go back to where you came from…the nature of why you are here must be addressed. It is a big problem in Belmopan and unless we act firmly it will continue. It's not popular, maybe it might not even be politically correct but it is the only way that I know the system to work: you apply for a piece of land and your application is given due process. You do not break the law and go and squat and then demand that land. It would be total anarchy in the system of land distribution. You don't take possession of land without being allocated. That is what we are trying to speak to, order."
And while Chanona sees the problem very clearly as a prejudice to good order in the ‘Garden City,' Shal and the residents take another view. They see the move here as symptomatic of a wider problem of economic marginalization and land rights abuse which leads to internal migration in search of a better life.
Roberty Zuc, Squatter
"We can't make money in Toledo because the only jobs available there as farmers and so you can't maintain your family because everyday you just work with beans and so if the rain comes it doesn't come out good because it spoils. That is why all of these people are coming here because it's a better opportunity. Now that we are here everyday we are working and we are making enough money for our families."
Valentino Shal,
"He cannot have a perfect city. He has to remember that these people he is trying to move are Belizeans. And while you want to have a clean city and a city with standards, you will have social problems and social issues to deal with but the manner in which you deal with those problems is not the manner in which he is attempting to deal with this thing."
"The Mayas who come from Toledo are looking for a better way of life. That is why they come and I don't expect the Mayor of Belmopan to accept them in the manner and treat them the way that he is treating them right now by making up his mind to do such things as he has indicated in his letter to the Prime Minister."
"The issues for discussion are the implications of internal migration; what causes people to move and what the ‘move' causes to occur. The Maya people of the Southern districts who come to Belmopan come for a reason. There is a cause to their move and that is indeed the continuous socioeconomic marginalization of the people; the fact that they can't meet their livelihood needs where they are coming from. And this happens everywhere, rural to urban migration in search of a better life, it is not only the Mayas everybody does it. Everybody in Belize does it so to single out these people and to label them in a derogatory and demeaning manner is not helping the people themselves who have suffered enough."
But the suffering is not yet over if we are to consider Mayor Chanona's plan of action for these people which would lead to greater dislocation and suffering. By that plan, they'll be removed from their new homes in the periphery of Belmopan City and sent out to the periphery of society without shelter or source of food. Shal says it's a slap in the face from a city that welcomed Central American refugees.
Valentino Shal,
"If Belmopan could have tolerated the illegal immigrants at Las Flores, which is another zone of Belmopan, I don't see why Mayor Chanona can't approach this same situation in the similar fashion. In Las Flores they provide them with house lots and farm lots. I am familiar with Maya Mopan I always go there and the people do need house lots but beyond that they do farm in open land I believe and so the same way they treated these illegal Central American immigrants the same way they need to treat the Mayas of Belize who are Belizeans. And the Mayas have a right to live wherever they choose to live."
So now, if this city is to truly earn the credit for the inclusion stated in its name: Belmopan, the city council will have to reach out to these newcomers, instead of turning its back on them.
We are advised that tonight those Mayan families in the affected areas are meeting amongst themselves and will request an audience with the mayor this week. What Do You Think?