JC Inland Belize Tours/ Charters JavierOscar Coyoc Sr

23/09/2024

15/07/2024

Sitio arqueológico Quirigua, Guatemala, Guatemala 🇬🇹

15/07/2024

Rio Dulce, Guatemala 🇬🇹, Guatemala

28/06/2024

Welcome to Western Belize, San Ignacio Town, Cayo District, Belize Central America 🇧🇿
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26/04/2024

Welcome to Western Belize 🇧🇿 San Ignacio 🇧🇿 Cayo District 🇧🇿 Belize Central America 🇧🇿 WhatsApp +5016218943
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25/04/2024

Thousand Foot Falls(1600ft), Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve Tour

03/04/2024

Welcome to Big Rock Falls! Western Belize 🇧🇿 Cayo District Belize Central America 🇧🇿
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Office: San Ignacio Town
Cayo District, Belize Central America 🇧🇿

24/03/2024

Welcome to Western Belize 🇧🇿 San Ignacio Town 🇧🇿 Cayo District 🇧🇿 Belize Central America 🇧🇿
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25/02/2024

Welcome to Caracol Archaeological Sites Tours package deal!

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25/02/2024

Welcome to Western Belize 🇧🇿 San Ignacio Town 🇧🇿 Cayo, Belize Central America 🇧🇿 . Archaeological Maya Site
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22/02/2024

Tikal Guatemala day tour from San Ignacio Town limits
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W***y Sosa Tikal Tour
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05/02/2024

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From San Ignacio Town, Cayo District, Belize Central America 🇧🇿

25/01/2024

Welcome to Oxmul Coffee and western Belize, San Antonio, Cayo District, Belize Central America 🇧🇿
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25/01/2024

Enjoying the moment!
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23/01/2024

Alcalde vs Chairman system

“ THE ABOLISHMENT OF THE ALCALDE SYSTEM IN FAVOR OF THE VILLAGE COUNCIL WAS A WAY OF CONTROLLING US ,DIVIDING US , TO MOVE VOTES FOR POLITICAL PARTIES AND NOT TO REPRESENT THE VILLAGE ... “ - Belize Yucatec Maya

Belize and the Alcalde System Belize, formerly called British Honduras, is part of the Maya region. The Spanish never occupied Belize and the British eventually took possession making it the only English speaking country in Central America. British buccaneers settled in the mouth of the Belize River from where they could easily pirate Spanish ships transporting logwood. Eventually in 1667 when piracy was suppressed they themselves began to cut logwood close to the mouth of the Belize River. This not only meant a more permanent settlement but the importation of African slaves. As the buccaneers moved up-stream and shifted their attention to the extraction of mahogany, they came into greater contact with the Maya. What form of Maya leadership the British encountered in Belize is not recorded, but it is likely similar to the batab. By the 1850s, there is evidence that the British encountered the Alcalde system in their efforts to incorporate the Maya and bring them under colonial control. In 1858 Superintendent Seymour proposed a bill that aimed “to legalize and define the position of Alcalde” which he explained his predecessors had allowed “Yucatec and Indian villages” to elect and present to them for appointment to the position. He proposed to make them something of a police officer, justice of the peace, and magistrate and to have them be nominated by the communities but appointed by the superintendent who would also have the power of suspension. When the legislation was passed, it did not even mention the point that the people would nominate their Alcaldes (Bolland 1988). Instead, the bill proposed that the Alcalde was to be appointed by the superintendent from individuals he judged to be adequate, and the Alcalde in turn was to appoint village police subject to the approval of the superintendent. In the process of legalizing and defining the Alcalde, the colonial administration, as Bolland notes, was imposing on it “British authority and legal concepts” (Bolland 1988, p. 136) and shifting the source of authority from the community to the colonial administration. Despite Seymour’s bill, the reality was that the Maya Alcaldes seem to have continued to function as they had. In the 1880s, colonial Secretary Henry Fowler acknowledged the failure of previous policy noting that the Indians were scattered and that “no control was really exercised over them” (Henry Fowler (1887) as quoted in Bolland 1988, p. 146). Fowler proposed a renewal of the Alcalde system such that the Maya can be brought under “legitimate influence and control... and be converted from passive and indifferent subjects into loyal and willing settlers” (ibid.). According to Bolland, Fowler makes his intentions clear stating that this is “to exact from them a strict adherence to the legal form of the colony” and “to draw 6 F. Penados them from their old traditions, and little by little to teach them our more exact methods of justice.” (ibid.). That Henry Fowler was still attempting to transform the Alcalde system in the late 1800s in order to bring the Maya more effectively under British rule suggest that despite British efforts, the Maya in Belize were about to enter the twentieth century exercising a fair degree of autonomy.

The Village Councils
The Alcalde system came under attack again in the 1940s with the introduction of the Village Council which is today regulated by the Village Council's Act (Government of Belize 2000b). The institution of village councils was first introduced by the colonial administration in the late 1940s (Moberg 1992) but established in different villages at different times. It was proposed as a mechanism that would allow community development through self-help – the community would provide labor and the government the financial resources. The introduction of village councils coincided with the beginning of the independence movement in Belize and the birth of political parties. Moberg (1992) notes that it also coincided with what was happening in other areas of the British Empire emanating from the belief that the existing forms of traditional governance systems were autocratic and incompatible with democratic principles. He suggests “the intent, if not the stated goal, of such alternatives was to undercut established local authorities, creating new village leaders who derived their authority from electoral mandate” (Moberg 1992, p. 13). He concludes that the Village Council system resulted in the destruction of consensual politics and the demise of the Alcalde system, except those in the Toledo district of Belize. The example of Succotz, a Yucatec Maya village in the Cayo District where the Alcalde system had been in existence since the 1800s, illustrates how this change from alcades to village council occurred. The village council was introduced to Succotz in the 1960s. For a very short period, the Alcalde system co-existed with the Village council but was quickly abolished completely. How the abolishment of the Alcalde system happened is not clear, but as far as local leaders from around that time recall, it was just something decided by the government with no consultation with the community. The village chairman of 1965 recalls that party politicians (the Minister of Rural Development and area representative at the time) told them that they did not need the Alcalde anymore, since they could manage their own communities themselves. He also recalls the slogan that when the Peoples United Party won the struggle for independence, there would be no need to do fajinas. (Fajina is a community collective form of work where all men aged 18 and over maintain village commons.) He recalls that some local politicians went further and suggested villagers ask for payment if they were asked to contribute community work. The results of the introduction of the Village Council and the abolishment of the Alcalde system resulted not only in the destruction of consensual politics, as Moberg argues. It also meant the destruction of collective forms of work to maintain the commons, the loss self-reliance in addressing community works, and the Indigenous Governance and Education in Belize: Lessons from the Maya Land... 7 introduction of a dependency on the state. Succotz village leaders of the 1960s, for example, observe that the village council quickly became more a representative of the political parties and not the community. It became a mechanism for mobilizing votes and increased any divisiveness that already may have existed. Today these leaders lament the loss of community, autonomy, and self-reliance.

Indigenous Governance and Education in Belize: Lessons from the Maya Land Rights Struggle and Indigenous Education Initiatives Filiberto Penados

Pictures of the last Maya Yucatec alcaldes in Belize .

23/01/2024

Alfonso Tzul and Francisco Tzul two Yucatec Maya men from San Antonio Cayo. In a Interview for Santa Barbara Independent Mr. Alfonso Tzul was ask ,People are often taught that the Maya are an extinct civilization, which is clearly false. What does being a Maya mean to you?

Alonso Tzul Answer: To me, being a Maya is no different from a person being an American because he lives in the U.S.A. or a person being a German because he lives in Germany. I am proud to be a Maya; I accept it as a gift of God. I may look different and speak different, but I am a person just as anybody else in the world. Furthermore, I descended from an ancient civilization which is as good as any that has existed in the world. Given the opportunities, we can achieve all the goodies in the world.

Unfortunately many people (especially intellectuals and those in authority) have looked upon Mayas as uncivilized people needing to be civilized. Consequently, they have not only looked down upon them, but have also endeavored to enslave them and oppress them in many subtle ways. For example, in my school days we were taught that the Mayas disappeared. Nobody knows what became of them. Then they said that we are INDIANS. THIS IS NOT TRUE, yet many of them insist in continuing to call us Maya Indians instead of just Mayas. Those in authority continue to do these things in their documents.

Due to these few things I have mentioned, many Mayas - ignorant of their history - endeavor to hide behind their Spanish names, to hide their identity by speaking Spanish, and doing their best to forget their language. Some even hate the fact that they come from Maya villages. A few have even changed their Maya surnames to Spanish surnames. To these people who number in the thousands in Belize, being a Maya is a curse. We hope educating them with their history will help.
Link: http://www.independent.com/news/2007/oct/11/mayas-ancient-eco-wisdom/

12/01/2024

10/01/2024

December 14,1761

Jacinto Canek a Maaya wíinik (Maya Yucatec) freedom fighter leader was condemned to death, to be "tortured, his body broken, and thereafter burned and the ashes scattered to the wind."
The sentence was carried out in the main plaza of Mérida on December 14, 1761, less than a month after the uprising began. Eight of his followers were hanged. On the following days the sentences of 200 lashes and mutilation (loss of an ear) were carried out against 200 Maya participants.

Their crime was trying to liberate their people from the control of the foreigners who had invaded their land ,divided their land ,stolen their land and treating them as slaves in the Mayab (Land of the Maya ) .