[ad_1]
Villagers confused and uneasy about leadership of Maya community
byMarco Lopez
Belize City, Thursday, August 22, 2024
Legal uncertainty is exacerbating divisions in the Maya community of Indian Creek, located on the southern highway in Belize’s Toledo District. The community of approximately 1,500 residents faces the challenge of finding a middle ground between the traditional system of governance, enforced by a 2015 Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling, and the contemporary village council system, governed by the Village Councils Act.
On Tuesday, August 20, members of the village council and a few villagers held a press conference to reiterate the decision to remove former town mayor Jose Choc and his deputy Felipe Sam, effective November 2023.
They pointed out that the disagreements between the dismissed mayor and the village council hampered the development of the community. The Attorney General’s Office finally approved the proposal to dismiss the mayor in January 2024, appointing Manuel Ack and Nicolas Choc to replace the dismissed mayor and his deputies.
But following the decision by the Attorney General’s Office, the Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) and the Toledo Mayors Association (TAA) filed an injunction with the Belize High Court prohibiting the successor from holding any form of traditional leadership in the village. The injunction was granted.
In a news release this week, villagers commented that after replacing the previous mayor, the new mayor and village council have been working together to move the village forward. But on August 15, the Attorney General’s Office sent a letter to the village citing TAA’s civil lawsuit and an injunction requiring the reinstatement of the removed mayor and his deputy until the issue is resolved.
This has left a vacancy in the village leadership, with the rival villagers electing their own leaders. Whether former village chiefs Choc and Sam will be permanently reinstated will be decided by the court through a ruling on the judicial review application filed by the TAA.
Andrew Marshalleck, S.C., the Belize government’s lawyer in the case, said in June that the problem has existed in Toledo’s governance system for decades. The 2015 CCJ consent order, the resulting need for reform legislation governing Maya traditional land rights, and the Indian Creek feud have put the spotlight on the divisions between the town mayor and village council system.
“These little problems have been festering for decades because of our history,” Machelek said in recent comments. “This is nothing new. This is not something this government has done. This is them being unhappy with the way we are trying to impose our system of government on them. It’s slated to be included in the law governing traditional Mayan land rights. This is slated to be dealt with as part of the Mayan land rights legislation. It’s part of it. The policy states that the government will make laws to reconcile the two systems as much as possible, and reconciling it may mean putting one system in its place so that you know your hierarchy.”
In Indian Creek, hopes for harmony between the two systems were clouded by accusations that the former mayor had held back the village’s development. Avelina Coque, president of the Indian Creek Mayan Arts Women’s Group, told local media that the former mayor had signed a letter without villagers’ consent refusing to install the infrastructure needed to improve digital connectivity.
The letter went back to the village council, leading to the removal of the town manager who was supported by the MLA/TAA.
While ideological differences over what constitutes traditional and customary practices pose additional obstacles, both sides express a desire to combine centuries-old ways of life with the needs of developing communities by implementing projects and programs that complement Mayan customs rather than impose them.
“We are not saying we are going to give up our traditions or leave the communal land system,” Anselmo Jolom, an Indian Creek resident and member of the village council, said at the news conference. “But those who lead the Maya are dividing us and they are not respecting the community’s decisions. I practice tradition. It doesn’t mean I can’t develop. It doesn’t mean I can’t build concrete buildings. If we have to leave the communal system because of this, then we have to make changes.”
The MLA leaders openly stated that the MLAs supported progress and development that met Mayan standards.
The new mayor was reportedly recommended by the village council directly to the Attorney General’s Department, rather than being decided/selected by a majority of villagers as is customary – a claim denied by Indian Creek Village Council members and the embattled mayor.
[ad_2]
Source link
