The arrest on June twenty third, 2015 of Maya Leaders Alliance spokesperson Cristina Coc and twelve other residents of Santa Cruz Village has become an international issue. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the O.A.S. has written to the government seeking information on the arrests on the grounds that the life and personal integrity of the Maya leaders are at risk for defending their land. The letter, dated July first, 2015 is addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. That, along with other pertinent issues, will be discussed this Friday at Golden Stream in Toledo, where the MLA is holding a press conference. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Outspoken MLA representative Cristina Coc is speaking out for the first time since her arraignment, along with twelve others, in the Punta Gorda Magistrate’s Court a week ago. Coc is scheduled to make a public statement on Friday in Golden Stream Village where a mass gathering will be held to address a run of issues, including the recent Santa Cruz incident involving Rupert Myles. An update will also be provided on the status of the Maya Land Rights Decision handed down by the Caribbean Court of Justice on April twenty-second. Ahead of that meeting is a letter from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights addressed to Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington. The dispatch, delivered on Wednesday, requests detailed information from the Government of Belize regarding the whereabouts of the detainees, their treatment, as well as the conditions of their detention.
Via Skype: Professor James Anaya, Former UN Special Rapporteur
“The Inter-American Commission [on Human Rights] sent a letter to the government asking it to give information specifically about the Maya individuals who were arrested last week, the reasons for those arrests and what the government is doing to ensure the human rights of all in the general context within which those arrests took place.”
Isani Cayetano
“From looking and having read the letter there are certain questions that I would pose to you with regards to information contained therein; specifically the fact that it is asking about the whereabouts of these individuals and the conditions of their detention. Is this being looked at retrospectively, seeing as these men and, of course, Ms. Coc have all been arraigned and released on bail?”
Via Skype: Professor James Anaya
“The request for precautionary measures was made to the commission before the arrests were made, actually right around the time they were being made and so the commission is operating on the basis of information made available to it at that time. And also the questions were fairly standard for the Inter-American Commission in this particular context where arrests have been made; it’s pretty standard when the commission wants to look at their situation to ask for specific information about their whereabouts, conditions of arrest and whether or not they’ll be released and so forth. But we have informed the commission that the individuals were released upon arraignment and we informed about the charges that were levied against them.”
Isani Cayetano
“Can you share with us at this point your position or your opinion of all of what has taken place leading up to the incidents last week and what have transpired as a result of the arraignment of these individuals? What’s your take on what has happened?”
Via Skype: Professor James Anaya
“Well, I think it’s too early to make an evaluation of everything that’s happened. I think we’re all familiar with the specific facts around the arrests. I would mention something about the larger context that has to do with the efforts of the Maya people to defend their land rights, an effort that’s been going on for some time, an effort that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as well as the courts of Belize and most recently the Caribbean Court of Justice siding with the Maya people and affirming their rights over their traditional lands in accordance with their customary practices.”
Isani Cayetano
“Is it your opinion that the Prime Minister of Belize may have reacted prematurely with regards to comments he made upon learning of Mr. Myles’ arrest in Santa Cruz on Saturday of last week?”
James Anaya
Via Skype: Professor James Anaya
“Well, I’d like to give the prime minister the benefit of the doubt in this case. It was a heated moment and he was referring to an incident that no one wanted to see happen. I would hope that in more sober moments the prime minister and the government officials more generally would look at the obligations that the government has to protect the rights of the Maya people in accordance with the judgments of the lower courts in Belize, the Supreme Court of Belize, the Court of Appeal and most recently the order by the Caribbean Court of Justice which affirmed Maya Land Rights and specifically called upon the government to take the measures to secure and protect those rights and the government has accepted that.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
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