San Pedro Columbia Say No To Communal Land  

On Sunday, a public consultation was held in San Pedro, Columbia in Toledo in order to discuss the government’s Draft Maya Customary Land Policy. These public consultations are a necessary part of the legislative process as the impacted communities are able to give their input before a law is put into effect. As there are over forty Mayan villages to consult with, the process has only just begun, but it would seem that San Pedro, Columbia has made its mind with a resounding no to the proposition of communal land. We attended the public consultation for more information. News Five’s Britney Gordon Reports.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Residents of San Pedro, Columbia are regarding the recent public consultation a success after the community was able to voice its opinions regarding the Draft Maya Customary Land Policy. A major point of contention was the proposition of communal land for residents, which would result in the suspension of any private land titles currently held in that area. We spoke with Minister of Rural Transformation Oscar Requeña who stressed the importance of these consultations.

 

Oscar Requeña, Area Representative, Toledo West

“This is an ongoing process. As you are aware, the government continues to go community to community engaging. The villagers in consultation on the draft Maya land policy. Columbia is just one of those stops here today, and I must say that I’m very grateful that the community came out. We, you saw that the people had an opportunity to be able to listen, to ask their questions, and to get clarifications. My position has been very clear that, at the end of the day, the government presents the draft policy engages the communities in consultations to get the feedback. And at the end of the day, we have to respect the wishes and the will of the people. That is democracy. We cannot, we are not in any way, imposing one over the other to the communities. We have to respect the will of the people.”

 

Requeña noted that, although the turnout appeared small, it was a good representation of the Mayan Community in San Pedro, Columbia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oscar Requena

“I’ll tell you what. San Pedro, Columbia is a very unique village. And I don’t want you to get a misrepresentation of the numbers that you see here. Generally for meetings, this is, in fact, today I think you have gotten a very good attendance. Really and truly, because generally, people don’t really come out for meetings here in the community. So I think that if you were to really take, a census of the people who are out here today that represents a good percentage of the community being out here.”

 

 

Chairman of San Pedro, Columbia, Basilicas Choco, explained that one of the positive outcomes of the public consultation was being able to gather the opinion of the community on matters that have previously remained unresolved, such as that on communal land.

 

Basilicas Choco, Chairman, San Pedro, Columbia

“Today I am very happy because of the fact that, Before, we have several meetings. We have had meetings with MLA. We have had meetings with the government side. But the community has never taken a position. And up to today, we still haven’t taken a position. There are questions in the air as it regards to communal land. And today, I believe that is clear for majority of our people. And the next step, as I was telling them in our meeting, which I had planned for a meeting today with an attorney, which is supporting us in finding alternatives, because our community doesn’t want communal land. Majority of our community doesn’t want communal land. We are trying to seek advice, independent advice. Not from MLA, not from government. So our next meeting would be scheduling, looking at the alternative and that’s what I explained to them.”

 

Choco further explained that consultation helped to educate residents as a first step towards independent land ownership.

 

Basilicas Choco

“Since a majority of our community doesn’t want communal land, as I said to them, we want to identify people who have leased land, we want to identify people who have private property, we want to identify people who are living on land that is not measured or surveyed yet, then we want to identify our people who do not have land at all. Then we are going to propose to government this is what we want. We don’t want this to come out of community land, and we don’t have an alternative. We have, and we have been thinking ahead. But we want to educate our people first, and I believe today was a great day to educateour people.”

 

We also spoke with a resident of San Pedro, Columbia to hear how he feels about conclusion of the consultation.

 

Cipriano Salam, Resident

“I feel it about it’s very difficult concerning this communal land, what’s happening, and all of us, well not the whole community, but very few of the community that they have a lease land and a private land. And we are not used to that again because our community is growing big. This village here, I know when I was a little boy here around the school here; it’s a big tree here. This is a big tree, but now, the population, it’s growing now. You go to the back street here, we have a lot of people, a lot are there in the bush. And some of them, they have a lot of children at their home, they don’t have no land, and that’s very difficult to us, that’s why we are not interested of communal land. We are interested of our own private property or lease land, but we are interested of that because we have our grand pikni. I have a grand pikni, about thirty of them. There are a lot of them. So where these kids are going now whenever I die?  I know I’m not going to carry nothing to die, but I’m going to leave something for the inheritance of my grand pikni.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.