Last month you saw a video showing a public meeting in Indian Creek Village erupting into a brawl. The fight was between a resident, the Alcalde and his wife. The root of the dispute was that the villagers believed that the alcalde was abusing his power by fining the village council for defamation, among other things.
But the villagers say it's not just that - they've been unsatisfied with the alcalde since he came into office 6 months ago. And today they held a press conference to announce that they no longer want to have the alcalde system in their village. Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.
Starting today, roughly 200 villagers in Indian Creek have declared that they will no longer recognize the alcalde system. That's after they say that their current alcalde, Marcus Canti, hasn't been working with the village council or even his deputy.
Manuel Ack, Deputy Alcalde, Indian Creek
"All we want is to tell the world that this village leader, the first Alcalde, he cannot agree as I am, my position is deputy alcalde, he did not make any decisions along with me. He is making decisions with other members who are unelected from outside of the committee. So now, so that is why we are here to say we do not need any alcalde for this community."
"The same problem has been taking place, fighting against the community and this organization is bringing big troubles to the villagers."
Donicio Sam, Village Councillor, Indian Creek
"As you all know, it's not the first time that this issue has been going back and forth with the separation of our communities. The people are fed up of it and it's time to just do something. We have no option, and we're not giving them any other options. The people has decided what they want to do and it's time for them to say what they need to say and voice their opinion."
Orita Choc, Resident, Indian Creek
"One of my concern as a village member is the alcalde is not allowing the Roman Catholic Church from being rebuilt or to say that this establishment or this building is sacred to us. I am member of that Catholic Church and I stand firm with my community that we must abolish the alcalde system."
Ana, Resident, Indian Creek
"So people is this the kind of leader that we want in our village? So here we stand by saying we don't need the alcalde anymore."
But it's not just that the claim that he hasn't been working in the village's best interest, but they say that he's abusing his alcalde power by frivolously levying charges on the village council.
Avelina Coc, Resident, Indian Creek
"I'm concerned that he charged the village council. Those are the things he has been doing, charging the village council and the secretary. He charged the council for abuse of power, defamation, lack of due process for the council and the secretary, abuse of power, $30 and the first one he charged was $80 and that is why we came and questioned him and that where the fight started, because of him."
It's not the first time they've had alcalde issues - last year, the village held a protest in front of the National Assembly because they were unhappy with the former alcalde. They believed that the former village council had appointed him instead of the one they elected.
Well now, they're unhappy again with the alcalde who was voted in this time. But they say he got elected because you don't have to present an ID vote for the alcalde. And they believe he's backed up by the MLA and the TAA.
Avelina Coc, Resident, Indian Creek
"We voted for an alcalde but it's not with any ID or social, with the council we use the social, but if the majority could have voted for the alcalde with IDs maybe he would not have a chance to win that position as an Alcalde."
Reporter
"Because other people come into the village?"
Avelina Coc, Resident, Indian Creek
"Yeah, like people who just recently came, maybe they are from other villages or they are from Guatemala, they just come to live here or rent for a couple months and they came to vote for him so this is what caused him to be in this position."
Orita Choc, Resident, Indian Creek
"I believe this is a strong message that we are sending to whatever organization that is trying to come and dictate in our community. No one has no right to dictate on behalf of Indian Creek."
Avelina Coc, Resident, Indian Creek
"We don't want any organization such as MLA or TAA to come dictate for us in our village, we don't want them to interfere or choose what is to be done for our village. We the community are the majority, Indian Creek should decide what we need for our community. For example just last week Sunday he went along with few members of the village, not the majority, few members, he went to demarcate the boundary line between Golden Stream and Indian Creek and then majority didn't show up it's just minority that showed and is this the type of alcalde we need?"
And now they say they need government's intervention - but they're also not going to just wait around.
Anselmo Chulum, Resident, Indian Creek
"The government has to intervene, the Maya Leaders have to recognize the rights and the decision of the people of Indian Creek because if you look at the faces, if you look at what we have today, they can pull their identification card, they can pull out their ID, they can pull out their social security so the other half, if they want to keep their alcalde system, let them be because they are people who are coming from Guatemala. We welcome them but we are Belizeans and our rights are being infringed by the alcalde system because we are Belizeans, we have a right to stand up, we have a right to speak for our community."
Manuel Ack, Deputy Alcalde, Indian Creek
"We have a petition here that has been signed by the people. We have 240 people that signed it to say that we don't need an alcalde again, we must abolish it. We will not wait until tomorrow or next week, effective today, the people we are not going to give him any respect from now on because we are the people who are removing him today, we don't want anymore problems."
When we approached Canti for a response, he declined an interview, but he told us that a meeting is tentatively set for the 13th between himself, the chairman of the village, and Gustavo Requena, the Director of the Office of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs.
The villagers say they have submitted a copy of the petition to their area rep, Oscar Requena.
