TOLEDO ALCALDES ASSOCIATION Voice of America Road, Punta Gorda Town, Toledo, Belize, C.A.

Email: taa1992@gmail.com Telephone: (501) 662-1663

Contentious environment for Defending Maya Rights

Santa Cruz 13 arrested and paraded

Through the street in handcuffs June 25th, 2015, Punta Gorda, Toledo, Belize Today, the Maya Village Chief (Alcalde) of Santa Cruz was arrested. Yesterday, eleven villagers, including the Chairman and Second Alcal-de appeared in Magistrates Court on charges of unlawful imprisonment some were also charged with common and aggravated assault. Cristina Coc, the spokesperson for the Maya Leaders Alli-ance was also arrested for alleged unlawful imprisonment. The Santa Cruz 13 were escorted in handcuffs from their holding cells down the street to the courthouse. Several were in bare feet because they were awoken in the night and forcefully re-moved from their homes in various states of undress. Fellow villagers outside the court house offered their clothes to some of the Santa Cruz 13, otherwise they would have had to remain in jail. Three of the Santa Cruz 13 and a woman were injured during the arrest. Today the Punta Gorda Police station denied the injured Maya woman the right to make a complaint by not enter-taining to provide a medico-legal form upon the request of her attorney. The Santa Cruz 13 or their attorneys were never presented with a copy of their arrest warrant. Bail was initially set at $8000 each. When one of the defense attorneys explained that this was beyond the means of Maya farmers, the Magistrate increased the amount to $10,000. According to local attorneys the amount established is much higher than usual essentially infringing on the exercise of a constitutional right. Bail was met when fellow villagers, mostly farmers, were al-lowed to post bail. The case has been adjourned until July 28, 2015. The charges arise from a criminal complaint filed by Mr. Rupert Myles. The authorities of Santa Cruz Village detained Mr. Myles for a few hours on Saturday June 20, 2015 as a last resort after he became unruly, making threatening remarks to villagers. Mr. Myles had ignored repeated requests to remove the structure and caused irreparable damage to the Uxbenka Maya sacred site. The laws of Belize prohibit building on or damaging any archaeological site, as seen in the recent destruction of Noh Mul in Orange Walk. Due to Mr. Myles previous threats to use a fire arm against villagers, Punta Gorda Police, the Belize Defense Force and the Belize Institute of Archeology were informed about the situation and requested to be present on the 20th June Santa Cruz village meeting. Also, immediately after detaining Mr. Myles, the nearby police sub-stations were also sought for assistance without response. Mr. Myles was not physically harmed, as he has claimed.

On June 22nd, 2015, the Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow, on national television admonished the Maya people saying the treatment of Myles was outrageous and absolutely intolerable while admitting he did not have all of the facts. Making reference to the 22nd April 2015 Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Consent Order, the Prime Minister stated: "I want to make clear to them (Maya people) again that that consent judgment merely recognizes that they are entitled to certain rights. The Prime Minister went on to say that he would find out from the authorities if they intended to do anything about the situation, fueling a national debate on the issue. When asked by the media about the illegal destruction of the sacred site by Myles, he said he did not know about it. The Supreme Court of Belize and the Caribbean Court of Justice recognized the property rights of the Maya people in accordance with their customary land tenure system and ordered the Government to adopt all necessary measures to protect Maya people and lands. However, there has been an increasing number of reported violations on Maya rights and no responsive protection from the part of the Government. For that reason and to comply with the CCJ order, the Toledo Alcaldes Association and the Maya Leaders Alliance have requested a meeting with the Government and expect that the recent incidents do not configure a political maneuver to postpone or weaken the protection of Maya peoples rights. Men and women from Santa Cruz Villager have affirmed that they will remain united and stand with the Santa Cruz 13. The Toledo Alcaldes Association and the Maya Leaders Alliance are extremely concerned with this escalating situation and have reported to the United Nations and other international human rights monitoring bodies. Facebook/Twitter: #SantaCruz13

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Figure 1 - Santa Cruz 13 marched to Punta Gorda Magistrate court

Figure 2- Human rights activist Cristina Coc speaks with Maya women waiting for her release

Figure 3- Villagers stood with the Santa Cruz 13 in front of Magistrate Court