Last Thursday, we told you how the Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcalde's Association were sounding the alarm that strange people had started to show up to several of the Mayan communities in Toledo to engage in what they suspect to be a pre-election land grab.
The MLA and the TAA say that over the last 2 weeks or so, they've been seeing suspicious land surveys taking place in what should make up Maya communal lands in the villages of Golden Stream, Medina Bank, San Pedro Colombia, Indian Creek, Laguna, San Marcos, and Sunday Wood. They've written the Government to seek clarification on these land activities because the surveyors keep insisting that they have the permission of the Lands Department. 7News has obtained a copy of a letter which the Lands Commissioner, Wilbert Vallejos, has sent to Pablo Mis, the Program Director of the Maya Leaders Alliance.
The letter is dated October 29th, 2020, and it says quote, "The Land and Surveys Department…has not issued any recent permission to survey in the Golden Stream area. However, we found out that the area in question was surveyed in 2006 and 2008." End quote.
Vallejos adds, quote, "This would suggest that if there is any surveying activity presently being conducted in the area, it is illegal or it could be the parties who were issued title in that area are clearing their survey line boundary." End quote.
Titles for these pieces of land were granted in 2007 and 2009, which was well before CCJ's consent order of 2015, which affirms that Maya communal land rights must be respected.
