The MLA and the TAA have also taken aim at Greg Ch'oc, the Commissioner of the Indigenous People's Affairs, who in his previous years as an activist, was the most visible champion of the rights of the Maya communities.
They say that with his cultural heritage and background as a Mayan Belizean, he should be acutely aware of the traditional governance structure of the Mayans of Southern Belize. They say that he has presented an FPIC Protocol that, if implemented, will weaken the important leadership role that the MLA and the TAA currently hold. The Best information to 7News is that an early draft of this protocol included language to acknowledge the important role that the TAA plays in the buffer communities. However, in this new FPIC Protocol, all mentions of the TAA were completely removed.
We contacted Ch'oc for comment today and we made 2 requests, but he did not respond.
At midday, we did get a chance to speak to his predecessor, Lisel Alamilla, the former Chair of the Toledo Land Rights Commission. As viewers will remember, the former Barrow government established this organization to act as the implementing agent of the very same 2015 CCJ judgment that's still pending today under a new administration.
Shortly after leaving that post when the government changed, Alamilla became the representative of a conservation group, Fauna and Flora International, which owns over 12,000 acres of land near the Mayan Village of Indian Creek.
This FPIC Protocol and its implications are very important to her organization, since, as we've reported, the village strongly believes that the land owned by Fauna And Flora International should make up a part of their Maya Communal Lands.
She told us that this new Protocol, which differs from the one that the former Administration was negotiating with the Maya, has what she calls confusing language. Here's her take on it:
Lisel Alamilla
"There is a different threshold when you are doing consultation versus when you are seeking consent. It is clear that it is intentional at what this document seeks to do is to consult, not necessarily to seek consent."
Reporter
"Do you agree with that position?"
Lisel Alamilla
"Well, if were representing the Maya people I wouldn't be happy with it, but I think every government is very afraid of signing on to free prior and informed consent on all topics, because they are afraid that their hands are tied. It's a bit confusing, because the language reads as a typical free prior informed consent document, but throughout it like I said earlier they talk about consent, then it switches to consultation, so I went to what is the schedule of what would require consent and interestingly none of the activities require consent. The activities only require consultation, so its like you wrote all of this lots of pretty things, but at the end of the day you are only saying actually all you need to do is consult. You would have thought that mineral extraction, oil exploration would require a higher threshold on consent. But this is saying it only requires consultation. Even abstraction of ground water as we know water is critical to our survival, so all of these building of dams, reservoirs and I'm just going to read a few - industrial plants, designation of burial sites, projects which may impede access to areas regularly utilized by the community, examples: rivers, dump sites, hunting areas, access paths etc. Perhaps maybe you could get the indigenous people's commissioner to explain to us and educate us as to why there isn't a schedule that list activities that would require consent."
