And while today's all day session wrapped at around 6:00, the government will have to continue to meet with the villages - both Maya and non-Maya - to iron out the issues - and they are substantial.
But the Yemeri Grove residents have repeatedly said that they believe an objective third person should be a part of the meeting, rather than the Commissioner of Indigenous Affairs, Greg Choc. They believe Choc is biased towards the Maya people. Today, Balderamos Garcia rejected that accusation.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs
"Mr. Choc works for the government. Yes, he is Maya, but he is a trained attorney at law, knowledgeable in the ground, fluent in Kekchi and has done a tremendous amount of work to assist the government. So I don't think that they should be taking the view that he is pro-Maya in the sense of being pro-MLA wanting the whole of Toledo District and all of that. That is not so."
"Now, if they feel uncomfortable the non-maya village leaders and community people, then we will make sure that along with Mr. Choc there are other people so that we can have a comfort level. We have had Ms. Tanya Santos, one of our CEO's, we have had Mr. Andrew Marshalleck, our chief legal advisor participates in the full consultations in Toledo District. There have been consultations on Saturdays. There have been consultations on Sundays. We have had consultations will all the non-maya village leaders as well as all the maya leaders of the 41 villages of the Toledo District. So the government is committed and I want to say that the people who work for our government are sincere, they are trying to assist us in every way in a technical way and Mr. Choc is an attorney at law, a trained attorney at law. He understands the issues."
"Now, if again, if there is discomfort then we as a government have to take that into account, but we have to make sure that we put forward the position of the government and it is not so that Mr. Choc is just pro-maya and nothing else."
