Today witnessed an interesting hearing in the Supreme Court – remarkable because the Attorney General Wilfred Elrington did the very rare thing and appeared to argue a case on the government’s behalf. Strictly speaking, there’s nothing wrong with that, he’s the government’s chief legal officer, but it’s just not the done thing, or we’ve never seen it done.
The case is the issue of whether government acted unlawfully in processing a lease transfer for a farm in Golden Stream village, which is in southern belize.
The lease is in the name of Salvador Bochub and he is transferring it to Francis Johnston, a Toledo farmer. But the Mayan villagers of Golden Stream say that Johnston – who is not a Mayan – is encroaching upon their communal lands, for which they have customary land rights. Johnston says the land has been leased since the late 70’s, before many of the villagers even settled there.
And now, this farm has become a battleground, a proving ground for the issue of customary land rights.
You may recall that last year, the Mayan Leaders Alliance and the villagers of Conejo and Santa Cruz won a decisive victory in court, establishing that they had rights which pre-dated and pee-empted both conquest and colony.
Golden Stream was not included in that suit, but the Mayan Leaders Alliance expected government to stall any land transactions in all of the 38 Mayan villages until the demarcation of communal property is worked out.
But when government initiated the process to effect the Golden Stream transfer, what had already been a difficult matter, erupted into a hostile one. And that’s because one Mayan farmer, Alfonso Cal had crops on Johnston’s leased land.
And so to tell you the story of what happened in court today, we have to begin with what’s been happening on the controversial farm in Golden Stream village.
Jules Vasquez, Reporting
“These are the cacao trees that Francis Johnston bulldozed. He claims they are on his property in Golden Stream and Alfonso Cal was trespassing when he planted them there.
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“Did you have any hesitation or do you regret bulldozing those cacao plants?”
Francis Johnston, farmer, Golden Stream
“Well, I have got permission more than one time that I am a recognized…I have a recognized lease in Belmopan and the laws of Belize says that trespassers is to be penalized.”
Alfonso Cal, farmer, Golden Stream
“I feel very bad, I cry about it because it’s a hard work, it takes 4 years cleaning, take care of it and it really break my heart you know, because this area where he bulldoze the cacao, it’s far.”
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“You accept though that he has a lease for this property?”
Alfonso cal, farmer, Golden Stream
“I don’t because that’s untrue.”
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“He (Johnston) has gotten an undertaking from members of your government that everything will be all right. So is your government on the side of this apparently productive farmer?”
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Attorney General
“No I don’t think that’s what Mr. Johnston said. Mr. Johnston said the Minister of Agriculture told him to go ahead and plant rice.
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“And ( Hon. Juan) Coy told him that it would be resolved.”
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Attorney General
“And Coy told him he was gonna have it resolved…”
Antoinette Moore, Attorney Mayan Leaders’ Alliance
“He mentioned Minister Coy, he mentioned Minister Martinez and he mentioned the Minister of Agriculture, he said that they told him go right ahead. Now that is setting up a problem! It’s setting the situation up so that the Maya community is pitted angst another Belizean.”
And now the matter has gone to court, with the Mayan rights activists claiming that government is trying to transfer the lease of lands over which they have communal rights. The Attorney General himself appeared in court – very unusual - and said they were trying to shut down the government which would cause chaos
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“You did the very unusual thing of appearing in court this morning.”
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Attorney General
“That was only because we are very short staffed, people are off on sick leave, people are out of the country for one reason or the other then we have the court of appeal apeparanmces so we really diodn;tr have anybnody here who could have argued it.l So I had to deal with it, because it is a urgent and important matter.
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“Why is it so important to the government?”
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Attorney General
“It’s very important because the government has taken the view that whereas there is a specific judgment in relation to two of the villages, it is not the government’s view that that judgment applies to all of the villages. And so it is the government’s intention to look at the situation as it relates to all the villages. One of the unfortunate aspects of the first case was that it was not vigorously argued by the government side as a matter of fact the CJ complained about that a number of times in the judgment. We are hoping that when next this matter comes to court it is going to be vigorously argued. And let me tell you why. The suggestion coming form Mr. Johnston is that the claimants only moved to the village in about 1985. If they were not there before it could it would seem be customary Mayan Lands?”
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“I saw you shaking your head at length when the Attorney General spoke.”
Cristina Coc, Mayan Leaders’ Alliance
“Well, ahm I was appalled at many of his comments; I was in awe at his comment of the domino effect and that, you know if doesn’t go through, that, ah, the people of Belize will be starving. Well, I beg to differ, because I want to know if the Maya people are not people and if they in fact are not starving. I mean when you bulldoze people’s corn and people’s cacao, and the very crops that they depend on for their sustenance. How can you say that they are not people that are starving? So, I’m appalled. I, I really am. It just goes to show how power and authority can be really arrogant.”
Antoinette Moore, Attorney Mayan Leaders’ Alliance.
“I was very disappointed in what the Attorney General had to say. I am certain that he must represent the position of his government, but I was indeed disappointed.”
Wilfred Elrington, Attorney General,
“In my view, this is an attempt on the part of the claimants to try to bring pressure on the government. If you look at what they were asking the government is supposed to do nothing in relation to that village until they get a determination from the court. We say that can’t be the position, that can’t be the position, at all.”
Antoinette Moore
“For the Attorney General to say that the action we brought today was brought in some way to harm the government, to shut down the government to stop the government I just believe that was disingenuous and I, I find it very difficult to believe that Mr. Elrington would really believe that.”
But whether he does or does not, what’s happening on this one farm – is a microcosm of difficulties that are brewing across the Toledo district:
Francis Johnston, Farmer
“You see it’s a feeling that a lot a we down south felt and a lotta people in the northern districts don’t know how that feel, because we down south are being victimized down there by these people, and as a matter of fact the past government I would say will always give them the right and always stand up for them and I don’t believe that is correct because we are all born Belizeans. Some of them are not, but I am a born Belizean and I work hard everyday and I have my farm and I have citrus, I work hard everyday.”
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“Do you feel you are being bullied by the Mayas?
”
Francis Johnston, Farmer, Golden Stream
“Yes, yes I feel I am being bullied by the Mayas because I always try to do something and I try to be patience with them I don’t try to hassle them or to threaten them or to do them anything but they went and threaten the man I have working there with machete, and told him they’ll cut him to pieces and a lotta thing out the way.”
Cristina Coc, Mayan Leaders’ Alliance
“I sympathize with Mr. Johnston fully. I think that Mr. Johnston should be compensated. I think that in fact he has also been violated. Mr. Johnston is a Belizean, he has a right to property as the Constitution of Belize clearly states.”
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“But not in Golden Stream…”
Cristina Coc, Mayan Leaders’ Alliance
“But not where Maya customary land rights exist. Not at the cost of destroying another people.”
Antoinette Moore, Attorney, Mayan Leaders’ Alliance
“If someone has a lease for land within a village that practices Maya customary land tenure, then there needs to be a determination as to what happens with that lease. The government cannot lease or sell land that it does not own, that is not national lands and so this is the crux of the problem.”
Jules Vasquez, 7News
“But these people have been landowners, leaseholders for 30 years, before this….”
Antoinette Moore, Attorney, Mayan Leaders’ Alliance
“And what the Maya community through its leadership and through myself as its counsel has said is that there is an accommodation that can be worked out but we need to discuss it and in the meantime there should be no destruction of Maya lands or Maya property. So you can’t simply say that the landowners who have leases in Maya communities should be completely dispossessed but neither can you say that they should be permitted to continue activities as if nothing has changed.”
Cristina Coc, Mayan Leaders’ Alliance
“I think that the Maya people have never asked for special rights, or as the Attorney General alluded to, greater rights than the rest of Belizeans. We have in fact been saying time and time again that we are in fact Belizeans and we wanna be treated equally like all Belizeans. We’re no less Belizean than other people. We’re saying as Maya Belizeans we feel that this is our way of life and we want it to be protected.”
At the end of the day both Johnston and the government gave an undertaking to not do anything further with the farm or the lease transfer.
The Mayan Leaders’ Alliance have been ordered to file a statement of claim by the end of the month.
