08/05/2026
Luciano Tzuc
Luciano Tzuc was a Maya macehual (Yucatec Maya) leader of the Icaiche Maya group. The Icaiche Maya sign a treaty with the Yucatan state and co-sign by the British in 1851 & 1853 under the leadership of Angelino Itza . This affected the Maya Macehual liberation movement . Their leader Angelino Itza was capture by the Maya macehual of the Noj Kaj Santa Cruz for treason . Luciano Tzuc became the new leader .
In 1856 the icaiche Maya under the leadership of Luciano Tzuc attack the British logwood at young ,toledo and company and blue creek . He wanted the British to pay rent for the use of the land . Luciano Tzuc died in 1864 and that is when Marcos Canul took leadership .
1853 Treaty - British ,Yucatan state and Maya Máasewáal
In 1853, Jose Maria Tzuc a Maya Máasewáal(Yucatec Maya) leader , Angelino Itza’ successor got the British in Belize town to sponsor a more formal peace treaty between Yucatan and the Maya Máasewáal group the Icaiche . In the agreement, the Maya Yucatec (Máasewáal) agreed to accept the authority of Yucatan. In return, their taxes were abolished, they could elect their own leaders, retain the lands on which they lived and retain the lands under their effective control , and maintain 400 armed troops to defend themselves . Though the Mexican national government refused to ratify the treaty, both the Icaiche (Yucatec Maya ) and the Yucatan governments agreed to abide by the terms of the agreement. By co-signing the document, the Maya Máasewáal (Icaiche )reasoned, the British recognized Icaiche control over part of the lands that eventually became the Belizean northwest . The British not respecting the treaty was one of the causes of the Maya Máasewáal conflict in northern Belize .
In 1882, Santiago Pech wrote Lieutenant Governor Barlee on the same subject. "Sir: desiring to maintain the most friendly relations with Your Excellency and the inhabitants of the Colony, I forward to you certain documents which would recall your memory . . . as well as the map of the territory conceded to the colonists for cutting logwood but as they have ignored those treaties erecting fortifications, placing in them permanent garrisons, selling and leasing lands in the name of the Queen and of private individuals without any legal title ... , in view of the foregoing, I have to inform you that your answer of the 28th March does not in any way meet my views. Where has the British Honduras Co. legal title to offer for sale a million acres of land? They have acted on the principle that we are a set of ignorant people but as the justice of God defends my country, He has enlightened me so that I have looked at the map made by The Treaty ... " - Rural society and economic development: British mercantile capital in nineteenth-century Belize
Batab Marcos Canul also explained that he was familiar with the maps which showed the limits of the lands given to the English . Would be interested to see the original treaty .
