By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize – Special Editorial Report

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Saturday, 01 November 2025: The Caribbean Court of Justice has closed its supervisory file on the 2015 Maya Land Rights Consent Order — but the story is far from finished. The ink on the ruling has barely dried, and already the political establishment breathes a sigh of relief, hoping the Maya land struggle will dissolve into polite consultations, technical delays, and legislative fog.

They do not know the Maya.

They do not know their lawyers.

And they underestimate history.

One woman now stands at the legal front line of Belize’s unfinished promise: Attorney Leslie Méndez, advocate for the Maya Leaders Alliance and the Toledo Alcaldes Association. For over a decade, she has navigated chambers, courtrooms, ministries, and international tribunals to hold Belize accountable to its own Constitution — and to defend the oldest land system on this soil.

Her task is not over.

In many ways, it has just begun.

A Victory Deferred is a Victory Denied

Let us be clear:

The CCJ’s closure of active supervision did not nullify the Consent Order.

It did not weaken Maya customary land rights.

It merely shifted the battlefield.

The 2015 order remains the supreme legal commitment of Belize to its first peoples: to recognize and protect communal land tenure, not as charity, not as concession, but as a constitutional property right affirmed in 2007, 2010, and 2015.

The Consent Order is alive because the Maya fought for it.

It will remain alive only if they — and we — defend it.

The State’s “Hybrid Solution”: Innovation or Dilution?

Government counsel Andrew Marshalleck, S.C., arrived at the final CCJ hearing with a neatly polished formula:

• “Hybrid approach”
• “Five acres per person”
• “Apply for more if you prove 30 years’ occupation”
• “Balancing Belizean brothers and sisters”

It sounded sweet.

It photographed well.

But beneath the language lies a dangerous legal migration:

From: Recognition of ancestral tenure

To: Conditional rationing of land

From constitutional right

to administrative quota.

The Maya cannot and must not be forced back into proving their own existence and history — again.

The right exists.

The land tenure exists.

The state is obligated to implement, not reinterpret.

A Decade Lost — and Why

Successive governments — blue and red — allowed time to pass because time erodes pressure. Consultation became delay. Drafting became stalling. Recognition became conditional recognition.

If the Maya had not pressed, the file would still be sitting in a ministry drawer.

This is not a land dispute.

This is a governance dispute.

A test of whether any people in Belize — Maya, Garifuna, Creole, Mestizo, immigrant worker or refugee — can secure justice when their rights collide with political discomfort.

History Has Not Been Kind — But It Has Been Clear

Belize’s Maya have been here since the first limestone block was set at Lubaantun. They lived here before flags, before borders, before our Constitution’s ink dried.

• In 2007, Justice Conteh declared their land rights constitutional property.
• In 2010, he extended it across all Maya villages.
• In 2015, the highest court in our region affirmed it with binding force.

It has taken thousands of years to build a homeland

and ten years to write a law about it.

Delay is not administration —

it is erosion.

The Task Before Leslie Méndez: A Legal Shield for a Living Right

To protect Maya heritage and Belizean democracy, Méndez must do more than negotiate. She must lock in safeguards so that governments cannot slow-walk justice into irrelevance.

In service of that goal, the following eight enforcement imperatives stand before her and before Belize:

1) Keep the Consent Order Alive

File continuing interest. Keep the jurisdiction open. Make it known the Maya will return to court if needed.

2) Strike Down the “Five-Acre / 30-Year” Trap

The land right already exists — it cannot be conditioned on a quota or proof burden.

3) Insert a “Non-Regression Clause”

Rights once recognized cannot be reduced or reversed. Ever.

4) Establish a Maya Land Registry

Not a desk in Belmopan — a statutory, independent mapping and title authority.

5) Freeze All Land Actions in Maya Territory

No leases, logging, grants, or concessions until the registry and maps are in place.

6) Create Enforcement Triggers

Deadlines. Written triggers. Automatic return to court if Government stalls.

7) International Oversight

Belize’s global reputation matters — and the world is watching.

8) Public Narrative: Rights for One Are Rights for All

This is not separatism.

This is sovereignty, rule of law, and respect.

When the Maya win, Belize wins.

This Is Our Test as a Nation

Justice Winston Anderson reminded us at the close:

“These rights are not museum pieces.”

They are living instruments of dignity.

And dignity delayed is dignity denied.

We say this plainly:

Belize is at a crossroads.

If the Maya Consent Order fades into committees and talk, we will have betrayed:

• the first peoples of this land
• our Constitution
• and the promise of an independent Belize

A nation that cannot honor its oldest stewards will never secure a future for its youngest children.

The Final Word

Attorney Leslie Méndez has carried a burden on behalf of history. And now, history requires her to anchor the victory, not simply celebrate it.

She must:

• Protect the Consent Order
• Force timelines
• Freeze land until rights are mapped
• Build enforcement triggers
• Prepare to return to court the moment promises slip

Because the Maya did not struggle ten years to be escorted back to the starting line.

The fight continues — not in protest, but in principle.

Not in conflict, but in constitutional fidelity.

Not in confrontation, but in the quiet, unbreakable resolve of a people who have been here since time began.

And this nation must stand beside them.

Belize keeps its word —

or Belize loses its soul.