And the minister says, at the end of it, the solution will likely be one that won't please everybody. But it also doesn't mean that the concerns of the non-Maya villages won't be taken into consideration. While some villages like Barranco were worried because, according to the CCJ Consent Order map, their village falls under communal land, Balderamos Garcia explained today that they are not being forced to accept it.
Dolores Balderamos, Minister of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs
"We cannot force, especially non-Maya villages, we can't even force the Maya Villages to accept everything, they would have to look at it and see if it is good for them, but there is no way that the government can force Mafredi and Barranco for example to accept communal land ownership because it doesn't apply because they are non-Maya villages. Now if they are surrounded by Maya villages, then we would have to carve out a situation where the people of Mafredi and the people of Barranco can enjoy their land. And so there have been some misconceptions and that is why we have to disabuse the notion, or the misconceptions that are there. The government is committed to making sure that all Belizeans."
"Enjoy a piece of our country. Now I am pleased that the Yemeri Grove people and Jacintoville and all of the non-Maya village leaders that got together and held the press conference, I'm pleased that they brought out the young people, the young people in sixth form, the youngsters who would want to own a piece of land so that they don't have to be under their parents' roof. I'm pleased that they brought those issues to the table because those are the real live issues on the ground that the government has to deal with and that is why we asked all the representatives to come today and have a full day session, we will probably go until 5:30 or 6:00, after that we will take a little drink, but we have to work first."
