Alcalde of Big Falls Waiting for Response from GOB to Survey Conducted on Land Tenure
The Alcalde of Big Falls Village in the Toledo District is tonight questioning why the Government has not responded to a letter they sent requesting the community be removed from Maya Land Rights Claim. The letter dated October twenty second 2021 was addressed to the General Office in Belmopan and has the signature of the Village Alcalde and the Village Chairman. The leaders note that a survey they conducted determined that sixty -five percent of the voting population in the community disagrees with the Maya Land Tenure Claim. Viewers may recall that leaders from Big Falls and two other communities in the Toledo District met a couple of months ago to discuss their proposed exit from the claim. Well, Big Falls Alcalde, Eulalio Choko, told us over the phone that his community is questioning why the government has taken this long to respond to their formalized position on the issue.
Eulalio Choko
Eulalio Choko, Alcalde, Big Falls
“No, not as yet, that is why I tell my son to send it to the media. I expected a result, but so far everything is silent. I don’t know why, but surely our Representative down here got his letter as well. With due respect, I would wan the media to interview some government official for information.”
Paul Lopez
“So you have received no information as to what the holdup is?”
Eulalio Choko
“No, none as yet, as, I said, this is a joint effort with the village chairman.”
Paul Lopez
“When was this survey conducted and how did you go about doing it?”
Eulalio Choko
“Well we had meetings. I think it was about for meetings. We could gather up too much because of the protocols of the pandemic. So we had Southside Big Falls, the Dump Area, Northside Big Fall, then..Village,settlement then. We had meeting with them and who was in favor at that time and present at the meeting, they signed up their names right there.”
Paul Lopez
“How confident are you that this petition truly represents the desires of the majority in Big Falls Village?”
Eulalio Choko
“Well, I am confident of the names we collected that the people that signed up, and that these people don’t want to live under the communal land tenure and they want their land paper to get fixed again and continue pay our dues to the government.”
We reached out to Minster of Indigenous Peoples Affairs Dolores Balderamos Garcia for comments. She responded via text saying the Ministry has taken note of a letter with similar content but, and we, “must continue consulting people as there are various opposing views.”
