3 days ago
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Tensions surrounding indigenous land rights continue to draw national attention, as senior officials from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs weighed in on the issue during an appearance on The Morning Show today. Chief Executive Officer in the ministry, Chester Williams, along with Director Nicanor Requena, addressed ongoing concerns related to land governance in Maya communities, with specific reference to the recent situation in Indian Creek Village, Toledo District. During the discussion, Williams reiterated that land titles reportedly distributed a few weeks ago by alcalde Marcus Canti are not legally recognized under national law. He emphasized that such documents hold no legal value and could create further confusion within the community.
Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs: “In the CCJ consent order, it made it clear that the government is to develop a legislation, administrative mechanism to make this happen. And the draft legislation we have now is going to outline those, the laws and mechanism in terms of how the customary Maya land tenure is going to be governed. We can’t forget that in the same consent order the court mentioned that a government of Belize maintains constitutional control of all land in Belize which would then mean that, I know you might come to this very soon, the actions of the Alcalde in Indian Creek distributing land and issuing land titles those titles do not carry the weight of law. They are void avenicio. He has no legal authority. The only authority in the country that has that right is the Ministry of Natural Resources and at this time the Ministry is not able to issue any title in the area because of the consent order where it says that the government must stop issuing titles in the proposed declared areas. So just to make it clear the Alcalde’s conduct certainly was illegal. Now consultation is very important. We do that almost every day but going back to what director Requena said the implication, on all persons, the people who are going to be affected most by this are the young Mayan. The ones who are fighting now it will not really impact them because they are already of age. But the young Mayan coming up this is going to affect them.”
The issue has reignited longstanding concerns over overlapping systems of governance in indigenous communities, particularly the roles of the alcalde under traditional Maya authority and the village council chairperson operating under Belize’s national framework. Director Nicanor Requena explained that these parallel systems can sometimes lead to conflict, especially when it comes to land administration and decision-making authority.
Nicanor Requena, Director, Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs: “So the ideal situation would be where you have the Alcalde and the village council working hand in hand and we have many, many of these communities where that works perfect and you have community development and all of these resources and law and order being as expected. Where the situation gets a little difficult is when you don’t have the two leaders working because really the Maya communities have existed with for a while with Alcalde and Chairman and once you work together you can see community development. That is very very important and like CEO said we will not get into the details of the legislation but it is anticipated that that system can continue working because it works well as long as each leader understands the roles and functions that they have within the community.”
Requena noted that while both systems serve important functions, greater clarity and collaboration are needed to prevent disputes and ensure that community members are not misled regarding land ownership or rights.
English (US) ·