MAYA LEADERS ALLIANCE

V.O.A Rd., Punta Gorda Town, Toledo, Belize C.A. Telephone: (501) 722-0067 Email: mayaleadersbelize@gmail.com

STATEMENT TO THE NATION On the occasion of the appointment of a Minister for Indigenous Peoples.
The Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) and the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA) note with surprise and consternation that the new government has appointed a ministerial portfolio of Indigenous Peoples, within the new Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries, Sustainable Development and Indigenous Peoples. To the best of our knowledge, this new Ministry was created without any consultation with any Indigenous Peoples. Neither the National Garifuna Council nor the Maya people of southern Belize through the Toledo Alcaldes Association or the Maya Leaders Alliance, was advised nor consulted. This is particularly disrespectful and disappointing since the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which Belize voted to adopt at the United Nations - requires governments to consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous Peoples concerned through their own representative institutions before adopting and implementing administrative measures that may affect them. The United Nations Declaration also states that Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves. Obviously, the choice of a Minister for indigenous peoples is the prerogative of the government, and the Minister is not formally a representative of indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, the creation of this ministry certainly will affect us, and ought to have been decided upon in consultation with us. We have to wonder whether the government would have created a Ministry of Creole People or Mestizo People without consultation with those communities, and if they would have appointed a non-Creole or non-Mestizo to handle the relationship with those communities. Had the new government seen fit to consult with the Maya people through our leadership, we would have recommended that a Minister responsible for issues concerning Indigenous Peoples should ideally be an Indigenous person. There are a number of extremely qualified and easily identifiable Maya and Garifuna individuals that come to mind, most notably Gregory Choc, who in addition to having a longstanding and deep understanding of the issues facing Indigenous Peoples, has the added credibility of actually having been elected to a Senate position as an NGO representative. We remind the Nation and the government that the central issue affecting Belizes Indigenous Peoples is the protection of our lands and resources, and, thus, our culture. For decades, we have clearly identified this problem. We have never wavered in communicating and negotiating this central issue to the present and successive governments of Belize. We firmly believe that recognizing our rights to the land we have traditionally and continue to live on and use is a key step towards resolving the illegal and often corrupt destruction of our natural resources.

MAYA LEADERS ALLIANCE

V.O.A Rd., Punta Gorda Town, Toledo, Belize C.A. Telephone: (501) 722-0067 Email: mayaleadersbelize@gmail.com

If the new government had seen fit to discuss the creation of this new ministerial portfolio with the Indigenous Peoples in southern Belize, our input could have helped make this Ministry useful and effective. As it has been structured, by compartmentalizing responsibility for lands in one ministry, and Forestry and Indigenous Peoples in another, the Indigenous Peoples Ministry is starting with severe handicaps and consequently may be incapable of carrying out its mandate. We can only anticipate added bureaucratic layers that will continue to frustrate the development of a positive relationship with the Maya people of Southern Belize. Despite this new Ministrys inauspicious beginning, we remain committed to attempting to build a relationship of mutual respect with the government, through our traditional forms of governance, representation, and decision-making processes. We expect the government to engage our communities in good faith, in accordance with accepted international norms. We invite Minister Alamilla to meet with Maya leaders at her earliest opportunity to discuss how the relationship between the Maya indigenous peoples and the government can return to a productive and fruitful one.